6,000 Years

I recently spent an afternoon at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  When I made it to the section on Egyptian art I found myself standing in front of a stone slab that had been carved with hieroglyphs sometime around 4,000 BCE - meaning it was roughly 6,000 years old.
As I stood there, transfixed by what I was seeing, I began to feel back across the years.  The experience is very hard to put into words, but I could sense the connection, the continuity of life from way back then to right where I stood.  What I felt wasn’t the struggles of the people, or the wars, or fear of lack.  Nothing of those qualities made it to me across the years.  What I felt was the hope and promise of future generations.  I felt an excitement, as if the Universe itself was watching the unfolding of humanity and marveling all the amazing things being accomplished - civilization, language, art, love.
So much of our daily lives are consumed with struggle, worry, and judgement.
“Your politics are wrong, mine are right.”
“You are a hateful bigot, so I’m waiting until your kind die off.”
“My religion proves you are worthless.”
If you haven’t had similar thought yourself, you have certainly come across them.  We can be sure that similar ideas have been in human consciousness across all of the 6,000 years between me looking at the stone and it being carved.  And yet, none of that was present in my experience.  My connection to that continuity of Life couldn’t have cared less about any of that.  It was only concerned with unity, love, growth, connection, creativity, and beauty.  

So if Life itself gives no attention or energy to anger, fear, division, etc., why do we give so much attention to it?  If it was important enough to have been included in my experience, I would tell you, but it was completely absent.  If Life doesn’t record it, neither should we.  Sure, all of these things are likely to pass through our experience, but that doesn’t mean we have to hold on to them, or focus on them.  We can let them come and come to pass, just like the Life that lives as us does.  Once those experiences have no more energy behind them, they will fade and cease.  The question is, will that happen in the moment, or will it take years and years?  The choice is yours...