By: Jon #Sage
December 10, 2016
It is easy to abide with yourself… you’re just there! But, to abide not only with the challenges of your life, along with everyone else and with THEIR challenges… and all of this affecting you? Well, that is where it can get a little tricky navigating the waters and playing well with others.
Why is this important?
In my estimation, selfish people are rarely successful, in the whole and rounded sense of the word. If a selfish person happens to become wealthy or famous, it is a sure bet that either inwardly or outwardly, they will… in time, become lonely and sad. It has become a matter of consensus that as humans, we need to be involved with others. To take it a step further, this involvement must be, at least part of the time, on level a bit deeper than casual acquaintances. In short, we must learn to abide with those around us so that we may also commune with them.
The importance of community!
Community is the essence of humanity. Even folks that live alone– hermits– as they used to be called, still need community. The thing is, they just haven’t acknowledged it yet. At our core, it is important that we all feel acceptance, #love, and encouragement. All of these come automatically with community. How do we obtain community with others?
We must learn to abide…
This word is often badly miss-represented. Abide is defined as to remain; dwell; wait for; to tolerate! This lends a somewhat negative or possibly lazy tone to the word. But, let’s take the first two verbs: to remain and to dwell, and expound a bit. To remain ultimately means to exist or to live, and to dwell means about the same thing. People often speak of their dwellings, or houses. In this manner, to abide suddenly becomes an active feat, which is necessary for our very survival. In order to remain, we must abide; in order to dwell, we must abide.
They say “it takes a village”, but for what?
Friends, it takes a village for ALL of us to remain; to dwell; to ABIDE– and we do this together. And when we do these things together, we tend to flourish as a species. While it is true that one may live and possibly endure alone, he will not flourish alone.
Our best work must always include, as its end result, the benefit of others!