Letter to MAPS

I’ve worked with people with disabilities in some capacity my whole adult life. Through this work I’ve developed an empathy for all people and an awareness that we all experience life uniquely, through whatever physical modalities available to us.

It’s from this center I started to relate to others. But what surprised me was that from this I developed a deep sense of connection and a dissolving of separation. From the realization of my own naivety I began to see myself reflected in the very essence others. I now look into your eyes and see myself. All of us, as an expression of the same *(entity, spirit, essence, whatever word you choose to describe this ineffable Thing). All of us scattered points of light from the same source.

For me this was a paradigm shifting idea that made gender, sexual orientation, age, class, color, religion all irrelevant. But it also made me more tolerant of people intolerant of these things. It’s this paradox that seems to me to be the signs that point to “the good red road” and is the balance of tension between chaos and order.

I feel like the greatest atrocity we can commit is to reign in our self expression, to tailor it to the circumstances or individual with whom we are presently relating.

As merely a conduit for creativity to express itself in this reality, my only job is to clear away the junk so the Source can flow freely through me. These words are my prayer. Thanks for reading them.