I made 3 trips to Los Angeles last month getting Mason settled in to his new home. The energy in LA is so different from here in Fort Collins; the people so varied from homogeneous Fort Collins, and diverse from each other.
My familiarity with LA allowed me to be a little more present in the city, more than I had ever been. I observed the tendency within myself and others to gravitate towards like people, as if the personality longs to fit in and group itself.
In a city with millions of people, overstimulation and overwhelm make it difficult to take everyone and everything in. It is as if we are born with, or maybe conditioned to have, natural filters that sieve out the dissimilar, or uninteresting, situations and people...such as the elderly, who are present yet seemingly ghost-like in their ability to attract attention...unless, I assume, you are an elderly person too.
Gracie wore a boot cast for 3 months in the spring, and all the sudden we became aware of the multitude of people, young and old, wearing boots. Trey and I were struck by the same phenomenon with our first pregnancy. Before pregnancy, we just didn’t notice young couples with their babies, but with our change in circumstance, suddenly baby strollers and young families were everywhere! They were always there, just not in our “grouping” radar before.
There is also the other side of the coin...those people who are so completely different from you that they draw your attention. In LA, I found myself pulled in by the hallucinating druggie, the movie star beautiful people, the actual movie star, the body builders, the homeless and the mentally ill, and the “rich beyond your imagination dudes who want you to know it.”
I do not think that there is anything inherently wrong with our tendency to group ourselves with people with similar life circumstances and experiences, as long as we do not judge or criticize another’s choices and path. I strive to be a person who is kind to, and respectful of, all people. Sometimes, though, I still find that I have to remind myself to allow others their differences.
Shortly after my return home from LA, I received the following daily quote from Abraham-Hicks Publications, which I think is beautifully apt:
Nonphysical is not asking you to ascribe to some specific label or stand in specific corners or in specific synagogues or churches with specific words. You are beings who are blessed and who are deserving of Well-being, and you will find your Well-being in many different ways - and the labels simply do not matter. --- Abraham
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