I Have Yet To See The Rain Fall On One Man’s House…See The Bigger Pictures…
“I am a part of all that I have met; yet all experience is an arch where through gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades forever and forever when I move.”
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson
This is one of the poems that help me bring things into perspective when I’m down and in doubt… When I feel like shutting down and keeping to myself… The essence of it is so profound, that understanding its meaning is to know this moment is just that… a moment. A speck in the mesh of our connecting dots…
Unlike when we are content, cheerful, happy, and overwhelmed by what we recognize as blessings in our lives; we all have the tendency to dwell on our own misery and unhappiness … those moments we struggle with for good or bad reasons.
Unbeknownst to us (or more than likely subconsciously) we choose to outfit ourselves with horse’s blinkers as if we are alone in this race called life, as if no one else lives, has lived or will ever understand this moment in our life…
The human brain has a tricky way of functioning… We organically exude our happy, we naturally share our happies, we innocently flaunt our rewards, we display all because we want the world to know…I’m WELL and HIGHLY FAVORED but when life hits a bump in the road, when curve balls are being thrown at you at a speed you can’t keep up with, and when “the pretties” in your life take on an undesired shade, we all of a sudden forget to share and let our shoulders, our brains, and our hearts selfishly carry and horde the pain, the challenge, the aching and confusion…
"I am a part of all I have met" is undoubtedly the most reflective, insightful, and truthful confession I have ever come across. Because we are truly drawn together from our experiences, from the people we've interacted with, and from everything we've learned. We connect through our challenges, and our successes, etc… We undoubtedly share paths in more ways than we know or could ever imagine…
"I am a part of all I have met" …When you really understand the full commitment this sentence implies, it is as close to enlightenment and epiphany as you can experience.
Every experience you have had and every person you have met has had an effect on who you become and vice versa. And as you know, good or bad, every experience is made of little experiences that have lessons to be learned. You can go over (in your mind) an experience and it will always have a little more meaning when you know you’ve shared it with the world… and it will always have more meaning when you know you were never alone through your experience…
So when you are felling lost and alone, think of this sentence, “I have yet to see the rain fall on one man’s house” and picture it…
You’re not alone in all that brings reactions or emotions in your life. Others have made it through obstacles, setbacks - like the one you are experiencing right now - and so can you.
No man (or woman) is an island. No matter how alone you feel or how alone you try to be, you need others, you touch others and you affect others by your actions, your reactions, your words, your experience and even by the breath you take.
Because someone else survived this moment your are living now, know that there is always a brighter tomorrow...
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
- John Donne, Meditation XVII
SEE the bigger picture…
And as always, remember that I love you - Smooches!
