papaya thoughts

When I trained in Taekwondo, I learned how to deflect an attacker’s punch by simply being elsewhere when the strike hits.  Deflection at its best.  

Nonviolent communication is similar.  When we feel verbally attacked we are so conditioned to “punch” back, instead of deflecting or trying to understand what concern the attacker came from and turning the exchange around.  

Recently I posted a picture of papaya on Instagram.  A friend responded that she liked all fruit except papaya.  At first, I took the comment personally, silly me. Obviously, her dislike of papaya had nothing to do with me and everything with her.  So, then I turned the exchange around, away from me and responding to her observation, the nonviolent communication way.   Instead of reacting to her dislike of papaya, I asked about her favorite fruit, and we had a lovely exchange about favorite fruits, hers and mine.  

Turn it around.  Poof! Gone.  

we are soooo connected

The interesting thing about nationalism, borders, walls and NIMBY thinking (not in my backyard) is that their resurgence is happening at the same time as worldwide events shake us up to the realization that in the end we’re all connected across national borders as inhabitants of one shared planet.

Heavy petroleum use for energy production, transportation and industrial agricultural practices, ongoing deforestation, industrialized meat production, and single-use plastic consumption all contribute to pollution and climate change in a major way, not just where they originate, but worldwide.  

While the coronavirus is for the time being mainly a health concern in its country of origin, Chinese manufacturing is slowing down because Chinese workers are staying home under quarantine, and that affects economies worldwide.  

The Ethiopian Nile Dam that is supposed to bring one of the poorest countries in the world some much needed economic relief, is at the same time threatening water supply, farming viability and livelihood for the one hundred million Egyptians living downstream.

Borders and walls are physical representations of a limiting belief system.   Until we expand our consciousness, we will build walls, transport our garbage and recyclables to other countries, exit climate agreements, and send refugees back.  Change begins with you and me.

untethered

Without interrupting her tasks, my mother-in-law used to walk around her kitchen while calling people, tethered to the wall phone by a very very long cord.  As a teenager I used to sit on a stool in our hallway, trying to have a private conversation with my friends from the one central house phone that was plugged in around the corner in the living room.

Wireless and Bluetooth technology free us of those kinds of physical hardwired constraints, free us to take our cellphone and private (or public) conversation anywhere – in the closet, the garden, the street, the car, the subway.  The connecting is invisible.

Are we perhaps evolving away from such physical connections because our in-the-past-so-physical interpretation of the world is beginning to shift?  That thought intrigues me.    Telepathy and distant healing, reiki and other energy modalities, intent and the powers of creative visualization, all happen in the non-physical realm.  Are they any less real than our wireless cellphone connections or Bluetooth speaker transmissions? Does wireless technology perhaps signal the acceptance that the invisible is as real as the visible?