We want so badly to share our innermost experience with our loved ones, but often, like the mermaid, we forget that not everyone can go where we go. Indeed, we all share this mysterious fact--that no one else can go into our depth completely. We must travel there alone....The living terrain of relationship actually exists in the overlap of our inmost natures. Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening.
The mermaid and the swimming boy found each other, but neither can exist in each other’s element no matter how much they love each other. As I’ve lived with parents, family, friends, husband, children, understanding each other only goes so far, often seemingly not far enough. It never before occurred to me in just this way that none of us can go into each other’s depths completely and that I must treasure and even be amazed, when we occasionally live in the overlap.
Baruch ata adonai I love it when first thing in the morning I learn something new or maybe it’s that I understand what I know in a new way. Help me to use this new recognition when I feel hurt by others and understand others may feel hurt when I can’t enter their depths either. Amen
I love the line . . .Living in the overlap. When i was younger I thought about why no one I loved seemed to understand or really "know" me. Now I think more about what I don't understand or "know" about those I love. Sometimes I have to really work to get it, sometimes it comes on it's own, and sometimes I just don't want to know. Maybe they feel the same about me; or, maybe they just don't think about it as much as I do.
ReplyDeleteSo glad commenting is working for you. I think people like you and I process a lot.
DeleteIs "living in overlap" a little like being in an elevator with strangers?
ReplyDeleteOnly if you're speaking in metaphor.
ReplyDelete