Twice this week, I’ve run into people
whom I had written off.
I dismissed them because they have
beliefs opposed to my own.

It’s interesting, isn’t it,
how we disregard others in this way?
I’ve certainly been denigrated for
the same offense: Believing differently.

But these people are kind and caring
though perhaps innocently ignorant.
Would it be fairer to say that
I’m innocently ignorant?

Would that be so far from the truth?
Not knowing what I don’t know?
Not seeing what I can’t see?
Limited as I am?

What happened to respectful dialogue and kind disagreement
where we seek to understand?
What loving connections do we
miss in our wholesale dismissals?

I was touched by one man
I ran into this week.
He expressed genuine care for me
which didn’t fit my vilified narrative of him.

I became reflective as I considered his kindness.
While I know part of the story I have of him is true,
it is quite limited in terms of
Who He is Wholly.

We, humans, are messy and nuanced.
Good and bad. Faithful and faithless.
Arrogant and terrified. Just like me,
this man is hypocritical, ignorant, and also Kind.

Just like me, he holds staunchly
to his limited and limiting worldview.
Just like me, he takes a stand for
an obsolete and rigid paradigm.

Just like me, he is at times
enslaved by his beliefs because
Often… it can feel safer
to be enslaved than to be free.

Freedom is vast and unlimited,
leaving us with a feeling of
teetering on the edge of a precipice.
We’ve forgotten that
We Are Meant to Fly.

Perhaps flying in this instance would mean
accepting this man in all his humanness.
Messy and Divine.
In doing so, might I finally, fully learn to accept myself?

Just Like Me