Selfishness

          One of my dearest and closest aunts moved out of the country on 7/3/2013. She went to follow her heart and her dreams. I am so proud and happy for her that she took the risk of leaving everything she knew behind to go live a magical life. But as I talked to my mother and sister about her leaving all I heard were selfish wants and concerns. When I read comments on social media from family I saw the same thing. So many people just wanted to whine and complain about the fact they did not want my aunt to leave. They had no words of encouragement that she was heading off on an adventure of a life time. They were solely concerned about their own feelings. When I talked with my aunt she was so happy that at least one family member was happy for her. And all the while my family was saying she would not last a year... that they could not wait for her to decide to come home. HOW COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY SELFISH!

          Though it kills me to see people behave like this it really is not anything new. We are a selfish species. So many times we do not care what others are experiencing... only what it means to ourselves. I see this all the time when there is a family member who is dying especially when all of the signs point to there is no hope and the dying person is ready to move on. Family will cling to the very last thread of hope, many times forcing the loved one to linger and suffer so much more than is needed. They do this despite their religious beliefs that the loved on will be going to a better place. Why is this? Well pretty simple. It is selfishness. We do not want to lose the person. We do not want to feel the pain of lose so we cling to any thing that will allow us one more minute, hour, day with our loved one instead of seeing death as a healer for the dying.

          But this can be seen in other ways as well. Take for instance how people cling to relationship. How they allow their lives and the one they love to be destroyed just so they do not have to feel the sting of loss when the relationship ends. This selfishness does nothing but cause pain. Yet, we cling to it like it were air to the drowning. Some many times someone would rather have the suffering of abuse or loneliness in a bad or dead relationship than the sting of loss.

          And of course this can be seen in our treatment of the environment, especially as Americans. We are so selfish that we refuse the creation of mass transit between cities and states because gods forbid that we should part with our 'god give right' to own a personal car. We have to have the most trendy up to date styles, technology, cars, and homes... nature be damned!

          What we need is a shift in thought... a shift in spirit where we are looking out for one another... where we are happy to see others reaching out for their dreams... where we are caring for the environment more than ourselves... where no one is forced to do or be anything by others... we need to release our selfishness that prevents life from being dynamic and every changing. Life is about change, about flowing, and movement. When we realize we are not above the forces of life we can flow with it. We leave behind our selfish attitudes living a truly magical and divine life.