November/December 1998
Articles on the theme "Family & Friends"
A Family Role Model
by Ethel Gillette
An account of how Bill Cosby in his
Cosby Show provided a much needed and inspiring example of real family values.
We're All Related
by Bob Gonzalez
Expanding one's view of family and friends to include the realization that
we are all one spirit.
A Soulful Season
by Edwina Holloway
Some suggestions for making the holiday
season more truly meaningful.
The Magic of our Differences
by Rev. Pat Cross
Friends and family - the ultimate gifts
of God's creation. Our human differences and our essential oneness.
Extend Your Family
by Cydné Battreall
If your current family does not meet
your needs, extend it! How to go about it.
The Family of Friends
by Sylvia Jackson
What it takes to be a friend and to
have a friend. True friendship in adversity.
Beyond Family and Friends
by ISA
The true solution to the need for family
and friends.
The Power of Our Thoughts
by Dr. Audrey Craft Davis
How we can use our thoughts to protect
ourselves and those we love.
Other Feature Articles
Natural Health Q&A
by David Simon M.Ac.
A practical discussion of the why's
and how's of weight loss.
2000 and Beyond!
Y2K = TEOTWAWKI?
by David Findlay
Mineral Kingdom
by Judy Power
Featured stones for November and December:
Lapis and Amethyst.
What is . . . Olestra?
by Susan Moyers
A fat-free "fat" that may
not be such a good idea after all.
We're All Related
by Bob Gonzalez
Cultivate yourself and excellence is realized.
Cultivate your family and excellence overflows.
Cultivate your community and excellence endures.
Cultivate your country and excellence abounds.
Cultivate your world and excellence is everywhere.
(Laotze Dao De Jing #54)
It is intrinsic to the Cosmos -- the orderly System that runs the universe -- that all humans, mammals and many other creatures take physical form through the procreative process performed by female and male. In plant forms, seeds alone sprout into greatly similar yet never identical reproductions of their seed-producing direct ancestor. In simpler biological life, cells merely divide to double their population. Whereas in many of the simpler life forms offspring are delivered into the environment with little or no guidance, in humans it is often the case where parents remain for years to nurture and raise their newborn, orienting them into the world in a way that hopefully will help the child survive, thrive and benefit herself and others.
Therefore it is perhaps natural that we feel more dedication to blood relations than to others. After all, we perceive and accept an obvious connection to those who share not only our biological heritage but our home and everyday life as well. It is the ability to recognize and accept similarities -- similarities that sometimes verge on equal identity -- that inspires us to create a strong emotional bond with another. The deeper the acknowledged similarity, the stronger the bond created. The bond between a baby and a nurturing mother could not be stronger. Grandparents, siblings, the father, and other relatives also bond with the child depending on how present, available and dependable they make themselves during the child's formative years. Sometimes newborns are nurtured and raised by people other than their progenitors. In these cases, the children recognize those people who nurtured and raised them as their actual parents. The people that take the most responsibility for protecting, raising, feeding, clothing and unconditionally caring for a child can rightfully fill the role of parent. So fundamental is this experience of family that it is used as a metaphor to attempt to conceptualize our connection to the Deity. The metaphor of an All-Powerful Spirit as Father or Mother is more common than any other.
Outside the family, we bond with others in friendship. Whereas family members bond through a biological and long-nurtured interdependence, friends are connected simply by a freewill respect and the desire to be together. The hallmark of true friendship is the acceptance of the friend exactly as she is. The more universal the perspective and the less conditional the respect of the friends, the greater the friendship. Great friendships can lead to family relationships, as in the case of marriage, and the greatest family relatives are ones who demonstrate the hallmark of true friendship. The heart of both relationships is a strong emotional connection based on a deep sense of unity that springs from realized similarities.
As we mature, we come to realize more similarities between ourselves and others than before. By socializing, travels, literature, theatre, film, television and chance encounters, we become more familiar with the plights of others of whom we were previously ignorant or unaware. If we remain open and receptive to truth, we begin to realize that the trials and triumphs of others are quite similar to our own. In other words, we begin to relate more to others to whom we had believed we had no relation. The more experiences to which we expose ourselves, the more we will begin to understand that all humans, all animals, all living creatures are related to each other in fundamental ways not less significant than how we are related to our own families. All creatures share the same blood -- Life. Simply through the fact that we are alive, we are all related to each other and thereby we are related to the All. Life flows through all living creatures and all creatures circulate in the Ocean of Life. All life forms inhabit the same Cosmos. We are conscious. We feel pain and pleasure. We breathe the same air. We move, eat, sleep, work, play, speak, shout, sing, laugh, cry, create, love, hope, sorrow and rejoice.
All living creatures share the Earth to which we all belong. Countless energy-forms move, create and disintegrate. This possibly endless Circle of Life serves at once as a playground and a school to expand consciousness. All our technological progress is for nothing if our little separated individual minds fail to expand their self-limiting conceits and come to know that we are one Spirit, the One Being that has divided Itself into multitudes in order to play together. It's a bit like a game. We are all the same being divided by a reasoning faculty possessing the free will to deny that we are all the same being. This reasoning faculty can reinforce its isolation by concentrating on differences and seeing those differences as reasons to contend with other beings. But when we begin to perceive more and more similarities and become convinced that the similarities are more important than the differences, our vision begins to fill with light.
Those who possess an enlightened vision spread their sights across the endless horizon and contemplate their connection to all living beings. They realize unity and celebrate diversity. They joyfully and willingly harmonize with the Cosmos.
Bob Gonzalez is a freelance writer who also, with his family manages Ansley's Natural Marketplaces in Tampa, FL. (813) 239-2700. E-mail: lopergon@gte.net.