How can a person go from one set of beliefs to another? I feel like I’m a case study for why we need to understand that a person’s set of beliefs does not define them. Have I gone from an intelligent person to a dumb one? Or the other way around? Was I okay when I believed one thing but I’m not okay now? I listen to people saying the things I used to say and think and it’s so surreal. I used to believe those things and now they sound so foreign! And truthfully, I don’t know where I stand on some issues and I don’t care.
Belief is complicated. I think if we just hang out with people who believe what we believe there is a comfort, but there is not enough room for growth and understanding. Our world needs growth and understanding. We need to step outside of our comfortable places and see the big, wide world as it is. Full of a jumble of people with different ideas. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet ideas. And those ideas overlap at the edges and blend, making a most magnificent, brilliant, cherished rainbow. Universally loved. If we could just see each other as a piece of rainbow, a slice of light….
And here’s another thing. When your beliefs do a flip – or partial flip – as mine have, you begin to learn that the beliefs don’t really matter. The people believing them do. And if my beliefs prevent me from loving you, then I’d just as soon toss them out the window and start again. And I’m pretty sure that’s what got me to where I am now in the first place. I’ve opened my heart to the sky and let my beliefs be carried away on the wind. My heart feels so much lighter.
photo credit: mini rainbow via photopin (license)