you are everyone

You are every parent you will ever have.

You are every child you will ever parent.

You are every student you will ever teach.

You are every teacher you will ever have.

You are every brother, sister, friend, lover you will ever know.

You are every person you will ever meet.

How does it change things to know that you are not separate from others? And that, in fact, there are no “others” because you are everyone.

How does it feel knowing that, at any moment, you could react as they do, reflect their level of distorted thinking or reflect their incredible clarity, calmness and wisdom?

Would that impact your ability to understand and even tolerate one you have previously thought of as the insufferable “other”?

The fact that you recognize another’s intolerable characteristics suggests that those very traits are currently alive and well in you.  Can you accept those traits in yourself?

We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist and forever will recreate each other.  

~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin~

Acceptance means that you are not better than, worse than and not even equal to.

You. Are. Everyone.