Well, today is my birthday, and I've experienced a rather interesting mindset this week. Several times, I've had the sense that I am supposed to prepare for SOMEONE ELSE's birthday. I chuckle every time this occurs, because I quickly realize that it is actually MINE!
I believe there is a spiritual component to this state of mind. For I am increasingly beginning to view my self as "other," and in so doing, am actually mediating divine love to it. Archetypal psychologist Thomas Moore tells us that "We become able to love ourselves only when we learn to love that self as an object. We now have a view of ourselves as someone else." Indeed, we might say that EVERYTHING is other, including even our own self.
Moving to a deeper understanding, we could say that everyone - including God - is actually a "Thou", yet without even being able to say that there is any "I" to speak this "Thou." Applied to God, this means, as Raimon Panikkar tells us, that "God does not have the experience of 'myself.' God has it rather of 'himself." And this is so because of God's eternal and blissful self-emptying.
May all of us this day begin to enter the magic of seeing all things, including especially ourselves, as a lovable other - as a "Thou" - yet without being able to find any "I" who might carry out this act!
Photo: Blue Spruce and Willow tree, Lory State Park, CO, November 15, 2014
