I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but since it was inspired by my thoughts on one part of Flamekeeping, I thought I'd post it here. I've been reading about it lately and I hope I'm getting the point of things. Either way, the exercise I tried the other night was a good one, spiritually.
The other night, before I went to bed, I tried something interesting. Thinking of the Flamekeeping idea that everyone is of the divine, I decided to apply it mentally to the people in my life. I went through a lot of people I knew, starting with my sister, and for each one, I said (out loud, though it was mainly about the thought behind it): _____ is of the divine. It gave me an odd feeling to say it out loud—my sister and I get along okay but I wish we were closer. It reinforced my desire to do something about that.
So I went on and said a few more names. Then I decided to apply it to someone I really can’t stand. (We’re not direct enemies, but this person is the sort that is “charismatic” to some, and “obnoxiously full of himself” to others.) I said, out loud, using his full name, that he is of the divine. And…it really struck a chord with me. It was almost as if I understood him better, because maybe he wasn’t as different from me on the inside as it seems, even though his behavior can really bother me.
Spurred by this, I did the same thing with everyone I could think of that I had problems with. It was a little tiring, accepting each one and moving on, but it was definitely a good thing. To take a mental break, then I said that my boyfriend is of the divine. It caused an even stranger feeling—as if his spirit had plopped down on the bed next to me and given me a big hug, even though he’s actually miles away and I haven’t seen him in a week.
Perhaps the oddest feeling, though, was my roommate. When I said her name (I’m home for the summer, so she wasn’t physically there), I sensed a resistance. I repeated the phrase “____, you are of the divine,” as if I was convincing her of this, not myself. I wonder if somehow she sensed it too, or if it just represented my need to share something with her (our friendship has hit a place where we aren’t as intimate as we used to be because of a number of outside influences).
In between all of these, of course, I named other friends and family members. It was a truly cleansing experience.
The most rewarding of all, though, was using the names of my enemies, and making them seem more human to me, and the names of my most dear ones, and getting the sense of comforting one another in spirit. That doesn’t mean I’m going to go up to someone I don’t get along with and hug them next time I see them, but if I do this enough, it could make difficult relations with others better, and the good relationships even stronger.
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