Getting to Know You

The tune popped to mind. “Getting to Know You” from “The King and I” Broadway musical. The lyrics are pulled from a very old saying but made famous by the theatrical treatment.

Just the same, getting to know you is part of what makes life so interesting. Each of us different from the other. Each with different customs, traditions, cultures, thoughts…you know the drill here – we are all unique and worth knowing. That’s as true for you as it is for me.

I do hope others get to know me. That enriches my experiences. In the process I can only hope that I enrich others and their experiences. That’s the way of it. Life. Sharing it, exploring it, consuming it to taste it, feel it and enjoy it.

Sitting in a corner by oneself is an impoverished experience. Very little external stimulus gains access to you. You are thus cut off. Alone.

Worse yet is you alone do not have an effect on others. Their life is absent your essence unless the life experiences merge and interact.  Both you and others are impoverished at the same time.

But together, much is to be gained.

Sound sappy? Sound as giddy and goofy as the lyrics to the song? Or rather, does it strike a chord within you that lifts your spirits?

Hopefully so.

A young child giggles. She is noticed by others. A smile breaks out on the faces in the room with the giggler. Soon all are smiling and maybe giggling, too!

What is happy or sad comes from within but becomes defined in the presence of others. Their reactions and emoting are part of our experience of happiness or sadness, and all the emotions we feel and express. We may think we are feeling the emotion by ourselves but in reality we are doing so communally. It is the group feeling that gives richer meaning to the moment.

Getting to know you is a primal act necessary for getting along in the world. It is not ‘getting to know me’, but you. You are the important factor in the equation. Being open to the experience is all that is required.

Yesterday we gave thanks for all the blessings in our lives. Large and small blessings. Maybe that included your family, or your dishwasher or garbage disposer, or the blessing of bird song in early morning. Maybe it is the sound of a snow plow making your neighborhood streets safe in a stormy wintery season. The blessings abound even when we feel deprived of money, health or freedom. Blessings remain a part of our existence. It is up to use to discern them, there very presence in our lives.

In the face of suffering it is not always easy to find joy or happiness let alone blessings. However, they are there nonetheless. Some days it is difficult to spot them. That means we have to work harder to see them. We already feel them; we just don’t know it.

Home is a blessing – a feeling of proper place for my being. It will change throughout life but the blessing of being at home or feeling at home is real just the same. A significant other in your life is so special we often lose sight of him or her. That ‘other’ is what makes our life much more whole. Wholeness comes and goes as we experience so many ups and downs but if the special ‘other’ is present, even in memory of a past loved one, wholeness is revived.

And health – a very basic blessing. Even aging bodies have health that feels good and reassuring. Yes we will each die in our time. We do not define that. While alive we can feel, we do feel. Best we make the most of it while we can. Take a deep breath (if you can!), sense the humidity in the air, the oxygen as life-giving and sustaining, the purity and freshness of the air. Smell the aromas of life – food, spices, flowers, fresh air, and essence of others in your life. Taste the foods you place in your mouth. Remember them from old or experience a new set of flavors. Listen to sounds amid our busy lives. The music, the voices, the lilt of language, the lyrics of music, the throb of rhythm, the sonority of chordal structures.

These are all blessings. They are the most basic. They are not simple. But they are all there for the taking and sensing.

The joy of life is all around us, each and every one. Do we truly take the time to notice them? How hard is it really to do this?

Sit back. Close your eyes. Sense your pulse. Smell the air in the room. Calm the inner you. Be in the present.

Now! You are ready for ‘getting to know you’, and you, and you, and you!

November 28, 2014