I don’t know what to write. So many thoughts flowing through the mind machine and like a river, the current has too many rocks and dead trees to avoid colliding at some point.

No, I’m not trying to make poetry today. I realized I needed to get my words down for my own sanity.

This year? Wow. Tired of hearing “New Normal” like it’s something we haven’t had to evolve through our WHOLE LIVES.

We keep looking for someone else to answer our calls for normalcy, forgetting that we are the ones driving the change.

OTHERS may not want change, because god knows change is difficult. When we were young and had to learn our lessons, almost every single one of those moments were difficult. Through some shade of adversity, we learned and moved forward.

I talk a lot about how my kids have been my greatest teachers. Watching them learning to walk – They fell down so many times I wondered why do they keep trying? Doesn’t it hurt to keep trying!?!

When they were around two years old – knowing they can now interact with the world around them, but haven’t figured out the rules yet – getting frustrated with the block tower collapsing or why the dog won’t let them ride them like a horse.

And here we are. Almost like those terrible twos, we’re wondering why can’t everything be easy. Why can’t we just go back to normal? Why do we have so many problems? Why, why, WHY, WHY…why?

We keep looking for something else. Looking for someone to fix this broken world around us.

I have a theory – “The world revolves around me.” Sounds selfish and conceited right? Think about what you see. I can look around me and everything I see is from my perspective. What if I said, “I see a beautiful tree over there.” Someone else could argue with me about several of those words:

  • No you don’t because I don’t see it.
  • That’s not beautiful.
  • I’ve seen better
  • Where?

We are not stopping for a moment to see that tree through their eyes. We haven’t lived their lives. And at the end of the day, if someone else finds beauty in something, why are you the one to argue with them?

Flip that script now, “That tree is ugly, it should be taken down.” This is harder for our brains, because we might respond with, “Not ALL trees” or “It’s not hurting anything.” But again, we have failed to understand. WE seek to be right. WE want others to be like us, on our side of the argument.

And that’s the problem. We have forgot empathy. We want to be understood, but do not want to understand. WE simply look for new landscapes instead of having new eyes.

“The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

So when we see people angry or arguing for a place in this world, are we coming from a place of seeking understanding, or simply trying to force the world to fit our picture of what it should be like?

P.S. While my brain is putting these words down, I see so many “hot topics” fitting into this. Some might believe I am talking about the riots. Others may think it is about the election. Still others may not even be inclined to look inside themselves, I assume because they don’t like what they see. Realize, I have very strong opinions on all of these subjects. And almost every opinion I have, starts from assuming the best of people.