All Paths Lead to the Top of the Mountain

Do you ever have those times in your life when you just want to leave society all together?

I do.

Regularly.

Since childhood I've never quite fit in. Though it's true I was severely ill as a child (look up Ketotic Hypoglycemia if you want the full details) and that we moved every year and half to two years making me forever the 'new' kid, I have always felt there was more to my feelings of not belonging that went much deeper.

In some ways, it's beneficial. Not being "in" with any particular group, strangely, makes you a peripheral part of all groups. Though I understood what tied each group together (and could see some similarities in myself), I never found that one group that made me say, "THIS is where I belong!"

When I was young, it was very hard. I kept feeling like I HAD to fit in somewhere to be "OK". As an adult, I'm thankful I never found just one group. I have the ability to see all sides without feeling that because I understand where someone else is coming from that makes my direction inherently 'wrong'. It allows me to have people in my life I count as friends who believe very differently from myself and with whom, I can have open, safe, loving conversations that help me grow and become a better person. Sometimes after these exchanges I adjust what I feel, believe or think and other times they simply reaffirm my original position. For me, I've always found some type of harmony and balance in those differences. As though my beliefs and feelings were validated by the fact that equal and opposite beliefs existed.

What makes me want to leave society (and I don't mean by death here, people) is the tenacity with which many people come at me trying to get me to believe as they do. Why is that so important? And WHY, is our society so often bound to the belief that there has to be ONE way which is the best way?

When I look around me, I see a Universe that is made up of what we view as "opposites":

Day & Night

Male & Female

Positive & Negative

Action & Reaction

However, none of these can exist without the other. They are intricately connected, divinely paired and magnificently balanced.

From my perspective, this shows that ONE of anything creates imbalance (one religion, one race, one belief system, etc.) and that only in our diversity will we find strength. In our dichotomies balance. And, in our differences harmony.

Hmmmm...maybe I need to change the name of my entire blog from The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives to All Paths Lead to the Top of the Mountain.