No matter how well we may think we know someone, there comes a moment when we’re confronted with the realization that there is much about them we don’t understand. They may suddenly do or say something that leaves us questioning if we ever knew them at all. This is deeply unsettling, particularly if we believed the bond we shared was extraordinarily close. Were we wrong all along?

It seems our natural tendency is to look at a thing (this can be a person, place, animal, experience, etc.), decide if we can understand or relate to it, and then based on what we see, stamp it with a judgment of good or bad. This is the tendency that creates war of every kind and causes great suffering. Right/wrong thinking doesn’t allow for the fact that there is always more to the story than can been seen. We simply can’t know or understand completely another's experience.

So the practice is to make room for the mystery, while not letting fear of the unknown and not understandable close our hearts. This isn’t so easy to do, but I find it’s helpful to remind myself that God truly resides in *all* things, and if I can just observe with compassionate eyes I will find him still, hidden within the mystery.



~Cynthia