Try a Little Feel Good

The winter storm that hit the East Coast this week just about missed Central Virginia.  The Blue Ridge Mountains moved most of the snow to the Northeast and we only had a light dusting, about half an inch, of snow. However, its cold.  Schools were delayed two hours this morning and so many parents, like me, decided that it was too cold (17 degrees) to send kids out to the bus stop and drove them to school this morning.

I planned my route so that I could make a right turn into the school parking lot.  Unfortunately about 30 other parents, who had not planned as well, were stuck in line waiting to make a left turn across traffic to get into the parking lot.  I watched their faces and saw looks of frustration, sadness and anger as the cars in the right-turn lane kept turning into the parking lot oblivious to the plight (I hope) or callously uncaring (more likely) of the plight of the drivers waiting to turn left.

Every ten cars or so a driver in my right-turn lane would slow down and wave a car from the left-turn lane into the parking lot.  I enjoyed seeing the look of relief and gratitude on the face a driver who finally got to enter the parking lot.   I began to reflect on what was happening.

The drivers in the right-turn lane may have been extremely important people (at least in their own minds) so they had to turn first,  been very busy (but probably no more so than the other drivers) so the 3 second delay in turning would have put them way behind schedule, or had fallen into the dualistic trap of thinking me, me, me . . . me first!  When we take a dualistic point of view we isolate ourselves from others.  We become the center of our little universe and everyone else is outside.

As a practitioner of shamanism or someone who is interested in it I hope that you take time every day to view the world from a point of view of oneness.  Realize that we are all one and that what happens to one of us, even its its just being stuck in a line of cars waiting to turn left, happens to all us.  When you take that point of view something marvelous happens.  You become kinder and gentler.  You become one of those people who act out of kindness not me-ness, others feel better and it feels good inside.  You feel better too.

Make the world a little bit better today and try a little oneness, it will feel good.

Peace,

Dr. Dave