UNIQUENESS & TOGETHERNESS: ROOM FOR BOTH

Yesterday was 9/11. As most of us do, I have a vivid memory of what I was doing that day when I heard the news: I was sitting with my friend Tiffany outside Northrup Auditorium in Minneapolis.

At that time, the news hadn’t completely hit me. Soon, as it did for all of us, the reality set in.

Yesterday, I found myself particularly moved as I paused to honor this day. It led me to think about what we all might be able to do in our worlds to create a little more peace, a little more understanding, and a little more love.

While we are far from a perfect solution in this world we currently live in, I do feel that we can each take tiny steps in the right direction each day by considering the following.

1. Celebrate our uniqueness.

 We each have different gifts, different approaches, and different ways of being in the world as individuals. Let’s take time to honor and celebrate that - and really step into the things that make us who we are.

2. Embrace our togetherness.

We all live together in this thing called humanity, all part of this greater world we share. What if we began to let go of the idea of “other?” What if we began to drop the “us” and “them” and focus a little more on the “we?” I suspect that it would make some of the current issues we’re facing in our country and our world right now a little bit easier to navigate. I'd even bet that it would have prevented a few of them from happening in the first place.

3. Hold the perspective of both. 

What would it be like to go out into our worlds holding both the perspective of uniqueness and the perspective of togetherness? What if we were to take a stand for this new, expansive perspective that lets us be individuals and lets us be part of the larger “we?” What if we allowed ourselves to step into this bigger realm of possibility, and in turn, this bigger world?

This weekend, out in your life and out in your world, I invite you to play with this new perspective: the perspective of uniqueness and togetherness, and the perspective of “the individual” and “the we.”

I invite you to do so not just to expand your own perspective and your own world, but because our world needs it. Our world - where police officers and civilians are in battle, where mothers and children are in a place of struggle, and where we are at war on the battlefield and in the streets with “the other” - this world needs it.

I would love to hear your thoughts and invite you to connect with me here, on Facebook or Twitter @zingcoaching, or through www.zingcoaching.com to keep the conversation going.