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Perceptions and Profiles
Ever wonder? How do people around you perceive you, the you of Yesterday or the you of Today?
We know that others view us through their personal filters of opinions, beliefs, ideas, and judgments- whether held firmly or easily released.
We know that sometimes these views are subject to a group or ‘herd’ mentality which can be either benevolent and beneficial or malevolent and harmful.
We can be regarded with love, affection, respect, and admiration, or even hated, feared, disrespected, and ‘demonized’ by those who actually have no true knowledge or experience of us whatsoever.
Perceptions, reputations, and profiles can be easily contaminated by prejudices, misinformation, misunderstandings, false assumptions, intentional misinterpretations, slander, lies, deceptions, staged fabrications, hostile ‘hacks’, and hidden agendas.
We can either live in fear of often fickle perceptions others have of us, or, we can live the wisdom of ‘To thine own Self be true’, courageously living our own Self-defining truths of who we are and freely choose to be in every changing moment of ever changing Life.
Even in Today’s world of growing false security through loss of freedoms, psychic attacks, and increasing use of violence, I choose the latter way of moving through my Time-line. All Life on this planet suffers from the insanities of Mankind. That needs to be healed.
Throughout my childhood and early adult years I freely explored local and global World Religions looking for the most loving-kind expressions of Spirituality in them. It shone through all of them in many ways. Each Religion contained clear proclamations of the precious Wisdom of the Golden Rule.
Alas, I also found that in every Religion I studied through Scripture and History, either Race, Gender, Social Status, Culture, Geography, or differences in various Belief Systems were used to deny or ignore this same Spiritual Golden Rule of attitude and behaviour. How can intelligent people not see such insane contradictions? How can intelligent people not question their inherited ideas about God and their own Nature?
Is it any wonder that both God-loving people and Atheists alike do choose No Religion in their lives?
Even while genuinely respecting all Religions and having the deepest love for God and Humanity (indeed the Divine Oneness of all Life), one can claim and express their own Spirituality without religious affiliation- despite denials to the contrary. Yes, despite continuing ancient and modern persecutions and killings through Religion itself , we can freely choose No Religion. I do.
Similarly, one can search for, explore, and respectfully value universal expressions of Spirituality and ethical integrity in all Political Systems that Humanity has created, yet have No Political Affiliation.
I have No Political Affiliation, no fixed membership, throughout my life. In Canada’s Federal and Provincial Elections I have voted Liberal, New Democrat, Green, and Conservative. My loyalty was and is to Freedom, Love, and Respect for the Unity and Diversity of all Life, myself included, however that presents itself to my understanding.
Inherent Human Rights and Freedoms respected by Political Parties and Governments resonate most with me, a veteran of many lifetimes.
Alas, global Politics contaminated by elitism, selfish and insatiable greed, systemic corruption, fear tactics, justified oppressions, and indifference to suffering have caused many to see the crazy contradictions between platforms, promises, and political actions. Still, we can continue to hope for healing Evolutionary Leaps into a better Today and Tomorrow for all Life on Earth.
In true humility, I see myself and my family, that is Humanity itself, as so much more than grass to be trod upon or sheep to be led to a fold, milked, sheared, or even slaughtered.
Ever wonder? How do people around you perceive you, the you of Yesterday or the you of Today?
Shelley Wilson
August 8/9, 2017
May your Spirit shine brightly, Shelley
Flowerpoet 