The value of experience is worth little until shared, ie. communicated or acted on. Of course, sharing means exposing ourselves to criticism, disagreement, indifference. It demands attention, following, a willing ear.
Sharing tests our credibility, how much we are loved or respected, whether someone cares to take a page from our book. These risks on our pride are nothing compared to the fruits of a worthwhile life helping others ascend. At the very least, the levelling of our pride shows us where to grow.
Beyond that, as we release our inner world into the wild, declare our world order and spread our knowledge, we inspire, we are participants in life, we find our kind.
Deepening our integrity requires an examination of our beliefs, that they be subjected to the world and unavoidably to the influence of others.
Doubt comes to challenge our certainty, but in keeping ourselves candid - ie renouncing the temptation to please, react or respond, we learn who we really are; we teach what we know to do and to be.
Sharing blurs our boundaries, where we start and stop, what we can credit ourselves for.
When we let others in, we choose synergy over self-reliance. When we share of ourselves, we renounce control and ownership over our inner world.
Losing our integrity as a unit is how we become an integral part of the Whole, how we find where we fit.
Until then, we are a free electron, unused power, a threat. Once opened and connected, we amplify the force.
Messages float and go around, soon enough through broken telephone, and we find ourselves the unexpected carrier of words we don’t understand, not deeply, not from experience.
What is worthy of release into the world comes from the heart, from our connection to some shape of the divine: love, awe, wisdom, compassion, unifying energies - anything but heady, ego-driven mumbo-jumbo.
We may only preach what is backed by practice.
In the comfort of the inside, our precious world views are safe and pure, they are our own, unperturbed by the judgement and misunderstanding of others, or -worse?- their influence and control.
Exposing our inner world to the outer world calls us to trust our source, that it will know to refine and chisel what we hold to be worthwhile and discard the rest, that the influence of others is polishing rather than perverting.
Renouncing control and exclusive use of what we know and have, blurs the limits of ownership, the contours of the object. Where does it start and stop? Who are its authors and its contenders? Is the dissolution into collective consciousness diluting its merit?
These doubts arise while we still cling to the idea we are the source, but as we watch the swarm grow into something much larger than us, we realise that as a single human, we can’t take the credit.
What we can't control we need to embrace and dance with. The old expectations, standards and rules wear out, they lose their grip. Succumbing to the fear of change would be exhausting, and the fight or resistance a waste of effort.
Inevitably, we are overcome, and if we allow ourselves to wonder, we may well enjoy what is coming.
We need to pick our battles.
We keep our self safe from confrontation through timely escape, a peace-buying gift, a criticism-smothering compliment, an arsenal of tricks we use to maintain the status quo, for survival.
The avoidance may lack courage, it is also the way of harmony and unfolding, because control or a forceful agenda would only highlight that, for now, we don’t know, we disagree, or we can’t cope.
Dispersing
Dispersion (dissolution)
Scattering