Mediation: "Couples and Hands"

Walking in the park today, I noticed a happy couple strolling along arm in arm, and I immediately felt happy, too – happy for them and for myself. That wouldn’t have been the case a number of years ago, when I might have been more envious than happy. I might have thought, “Gosh, I wish I had a close friend like that. I wish my divorce hadn’t happened, and my wife and I were still as happy as we once were.” In the past, far from sharing in their happiness, I might have felt cut off from the joy I saw in this couple in the park. Today, though, when I saw them walking along so contentedly, I immediately felt joy, almost as if I was actually sharing it with them. And of course, the truth is that I was sharing it with them, because we three are part of a unified and harmonious reality. Every person, animal, and plant in the world seems to be separate from every other, but the simple fact is that we are all inextricably joined together. No one is really separate from anyone else, any more than my hand is separate from my body. The atoms that make up all of our bodies were created simultaneously at the time of the “big bang” some 15 billion years ago, and we’re all part of the harmonious universe that’s been dancing along ever since. After passing the happy couple, I began to wonder how I would feel if my hand were wearing a beautiful ring. Would I be envious of the hand because it looked so beautiful, so happy ? Of course not. I would know that that the hand and I are part of the same body, and therefore I would smile at its handsome appearance.

And, since the cheerful couple and I are part of the same "body" called the Universe, I can smile, too, at their lovely appearance. I can be grateful for what the Universe (sometimes called God, Allah, and many other names) has accomplished, both in me and in them.