My premise is that we all have a toolbox that we carry through life. At birth, that toolbox contains only two simple tools; the ability to cry which brings us help with our needs, and the ability to smile which endears us to our parents. As we journey through life our toolbox becomes fuller, allowing us to cope with new life situations. Through sharing, we can give tools to others for their toolbox, tools they can then use for themselves, and in-turn pass on to others.
Our toolbox also has the potential to protect us; all the gathered tools can be brought out as needed to save us from the many hurts we experience throughout our life or used as a shield to prevent hurt from getting through to our core. This takes practice of course, and a periodic inventory of the tools we have on-hand. I feel that we become better at handling situations as we age; our tool inventory keeps getting bigger allowing us to not only utilize the tools for our own purpose but also to help shield those people we treasure.
Tools are all around us, (like a video game where items hang in mid-air until our character runs past them, or picks them up as we explore a new worlds in the game); simply acknowledge the potential they can bring us; nature brings us peace and wonderment; compassion brings us empathy and healing; love brings us fulfillment and security, faith brings us forgiveness and hope; animals bring us loyalty and contentment; family brings us joy and belonging. But the negative side of life, things that my grandfather recognized that could have sent my life in a different direction, darken our ability to gather these tools all around us; our vision is clouded with self-loathing, self-indulgence, narrow mindedness, denial, the void that comes with addiction, anger, intolerance, refutation. These things and more, can make us overlook the tools that are there for the taking, if we only stretch out a hand and grab them.
Ask anyone how they feel when they walk through a beautiful forest when the sights and smells of the wilderness fill us with a sense of belonging and acceptance; we can breathe better in a forest, all of our senses are amplified, our toolbox can benefit from this experience; take what it has to offer.
Yours doesn’t have to be a beautiful forest; it can be whatever you enjoy seeing or doing; something you enjoy on your own or maybe with a special friend or cherished animal. Those moments, no matter how fleeting, change us; we walk away with something we didn’t have before we came to that moment, a new tool for our toolbox, and the ability to share the potential of that new tool with someone else.
Giving and taking, in a meaningful way, that is the secret to successful humanity in my eyes; giving requires tolerance, taking requires acceptance; no one person, culture, faith, ideology can bring 100% success, we have to accept who we are and what we have in order to be able to bring the inner depths of ourselves into the light of the world.