“We don’t know what everyone else is dealing with. It just seems that so few people think of that.

We’re all alive. It’s crazy… people are so rude and inconsiderate of other people. It makes me crazy… I don’t understand.

Whatever you’re dealing with, you don’t have to project it on everybody else… it’s crazy.

Treat people the way you want to be treated. It’s like my number one thing. It really makes my life easy and simple. I don’t have any enemies, or hate, or resentment. It’s really good.”

Says Divina of life, and in her advice “The Golden Rule” strikes again, “Treat people the way you want to be treated.”

The Golden Rule… You’ve heard me report of it many a time. And for the sake of positioning my comments today, know that it is by choice that I use the word report. For whenever I write of the The Golden Rule premise, it is through the voice of those who uniquely share their perspectives on its adaptation. The intent being, to footnote its relevance in enlightening us to the knowledge that every day of our lives, there are probably more people than we realize questing the same compassionate respect: To be treated with dignity, kindness and acceptance.

I’m blown away that we are this far into 365. The time has flown by and in two days we will officially hit the three hundred day mark. We really are in the final countdown of its mission of getting us to put our feet in the shoes of others. And doing so without fear, void of comparison and with a loving outlook.

“We’re all alive,” Davina’s heartfelt observation of society as she dreams of a kinder world…

Funny thing… As I write, an exercise is coming into my mind. I don’t know why, but for some overpowering reason, Davina’s statement has caused my subconscious to tell me to lift my hands from the keyboard and to sit back in my chair… To take rest in relaxing my mind for a few minutes… To close my eyes in letting go of my control… To take a few breaths in feeling the air… And to try to recall as many faces as I can of the people I have associated with over the last week or so. Visualizing the humanity in all… regardless of the experience. And lastly, to ground the meditation with Divina’s call, “We’re all alive.”

For the sake of unity, I ask you to join me in the experiment. Here we go, I’ll be right back (Setting my timer for three minutes)…

And Readers if you are joining me… Don’t read on until after your meditation.

… I return… That was interesting. I entered my meditation with high expectations, and it was very revealing. In closing my eyes I prepped my mind with Davina’s words, “We’re all alive.”

I took my breaths, shut of my mind, and at first, all that I felt was the need to go to sleep. Really more like a peaceful blankness was in my head. So I started to force my mind, focusing on specific situations of the many people who I interacted with over the last week As I did, I got distracted by a conversation between my daughter and wife that echoed in the background of my home. I again forced my mind to refocus, and entered the same mind blank state of peaceful relaxation. The faces blurred into a great noise and amidst it only a few came to focus. One: A client, who with stress in his eyes, unloaded on me about an issue with a location. At first I took it as an attack, but later realized he was trusting me with his feelings. Two: A friend of mine who on Thursday was so distant that it seemed as if I had offended him. Today I found out it was the day he lost his job. Three: Another semi close friend who I have avoided in fear of enmeshment, who only hours ago uplifted me with one of the most caring phone conversations I have had in a long time. The faces began to un-blur when the timer alarm sounded.

Now I sit here rather exposed. An exposure that has left me a little ashamed and life checked. Now I’m not trying to make myself out as heartless, but three minutes of meditation awakened me a bit. An awakening, that although has been progressing throughout the last hundreds of 365 days, is unexpectedly double-checked by Davina’s advice.

Here is my assessment, too many times have I taken first impression personally. In all three faces that focused into mind, all were reaching to me and I did not see it at that time.

Very humbling to admit, of all the experiences I encountered… many of the most bonding ones, where in reality, the ones that I wanted to escape from.

What’s this teaching me, or us? I’m extremely curious to know how the exercise affected you? If you did it? PLEASE COMMENT AND LET US ALL KNOW. The sum whole of the experiment could be a great teacher to us all.

Divina has felt at times this world to be rude and inconsiderate. And although difficult to understand, perhaps it is really a world of equally fearful and quite possibly pained people.

People who sadly have tendency to divide themselves in reaction to outwardly perception or inward insecurities, rather than to take pause to breathe in examining the full measure of any given interaction.

And do we, in the word of Divina, Project what we are dealing with on everybody else?

Probably so… And, in a way, that’s not always the healthiest thing, considering that the opposite stance of keeping it in would be as equally unhealthy. Just look at the statistics of chronic hypertension in modern society.

Thus, here is the lesson learned, as least for me. “It is up to the listener to direct the action or resolve, not the other way around.”

My meditation reveals this to me. I did not seek to review the above-mentioned situations. I even tried to steer my mind in another more pleasant direction. But that is where it went as I let go of controlling it.

“It’s crazy!” Divina exclaims with an engaged acceptance.

Maybe, maybe not… Or is it what makes us all unique, powerful and equally vulnerable: Basically… HUMAN.

I’ll vote for human.

“I don’t have any enemies, or hate, or resentment,” Davina expands.

In my world, not saying that I am out to make enemies, or to hate, or to harbor resentment. But after only three minutes of closed eyed reflection, I realize that I have three much closer relationships that I previously did not understand.

Divina is a wise soul. I ask her about the future. She responds previewed by a long sigh. “I worry about our future… honestly… It feels like we are at battle with our planet… our home… It’s crazy.

I think it’s like evolution, all these technological advancements… I wonder… And I hope it really is an evolution.

I’m kind of like old-fashioned, I guess… Kind of like and old spirit a little… I’m like an old person…” She chuckles, “…People are like doing all these gadgets and stuff. It just seems very impersonal.”

We’ve spoken often of the impersonal nature of the new world of virtual communication. A very real issue with modern society and one not to be brushed under the carpet.

But what is striking hard at the core today is how do we react with each other in the real face-to-face world. Not like in the virtual sphere, where with the click of a mouse, or through the touch of a screen, we can easily disengage. But in the trenches of the difficult life moments of this existence we call living.

Divina, you are powerfully on target!

We are “ALL ALIVE.”