Labels can be awesome. They can finally provide you with the words and concepts that have defined a great deal of your life experience but that you could not readily describe within yourself until that label unlocked that perception. Labels can unite you with others who you may not have known shared such common life experiences as yours. Labels can help you know yourself so that you can better have compassion on yourself and better grow as a human being.
We are certainly united in suffering. We vary by degree of suffering and specific details but we all know the experience of having our hearts broken. Some souls’ hearts are broken before they are even born – babies conceived out of circumstances burdened with adult problems they cannot even comprehend much less solve or make better. Some children are not born out of an excitement to celebrate this new precious invaluable life but born out of tragedy or unfulfilled desires or utter grief at the despairing circumstances that led to the pregnancy. Not an easy thing for a little child to live down.
We all either have labels that empower us or that incline us to feel bad. We all have to decide if we will let these labels empower our limiting beliefs or empower us to believe new and more honest things about ourselves. We all have to focus on our own belief system regarding our labels and not be distracted by how unfair our labels may be compared to people who can just get away with all sorts of behaviors without having to live down a stigma since there is not a label for that behavior yet. We all have to deal with labels that others seem to perpetually get wrong, such as others believing that when you have cerebral palsy your intelligence is impaired when, no, it is just your physical abilities that are impaired. We all face so many layers of misunderstandings towards us, both from others and even within ourselves. We all have to be intentional about not comparing ourselves to others and instead figure out how to be our own best.
We all struggle with injustice. Sometimes injustice can make someone feel small and isolated but there is also the smallness and isolation in not understanding your own behavior when you are hateful. The person acting hateful is not truly “bigger,” just behaving more meaner and more powerful. At some level, I believe they are not trying to be hateful. The person who was hateful to them first is who they perceive to be the mean one and now they are seeking “justice” by being the person in “power.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
We all have to work hard at something, whether it be financially. or interpersonal relationships or physically or emotionally or so many ways all at once. Even people born to much wealth and who appear to have it “easy” have to not let the luxury consume their soul to the point being alive just becomes crass and meaningless to them.
We all struggle to make decisions about the meaning of why we exist. Even if you decide there is no meaning and everything is random, you still have to decide what your response will be. Will you create your own meaning? Will you decide that being conscious of your meaninglessness gives meaning to your meaningless life? Will you give yourself a free pass to just be your worst self or will you choose a higher purpose anyway? You may not have meaning, but you do have the opportunity to learn and grow.
We are all united in being loved, though it can be challenging to truly accept that if love has not been freely experienced early on. At the very least some form of a Creator or an Origin who is far beyond our capacity to grasp thought it was a positive idea for you to exist and to accomplish things that give you meaning and joy as well as joy to others.
We are all united in our prosperity and wellness depending upon connectedness to others. We all need experts and conveniences and knowledge and leadership and so many other qualities that only happen through coming together with others. We are each gifted in unique ways where we need to give what we have and we need to receive the giftedness of others. I see this especially in Special Books By Special Kids interviews on YouTube. Chris Ulmer interviews primarily children on what it is like to live with their disability and there is this common theme that others only see what they cannot do when there is so much they can do, especially within their hearts. We need to stop limiting other people from giving the gifts that are still very well capable of giving to us if we would just change our perspective. We are each an incredibly under-tapped resource of not just potential strengths but strengths we already have that just go terribly unseen by both ourselves and others. We need to be kind to one another and let each other prosper in our humanity.
“Where there is unity there is always victory.” – Publilius Syrus
We are all on the same team. We just refuse to believe it sometimes. Labels can be awesome and empowering and unifying but remember that we are all united in ways that transcend labels as well. You’ve got this!
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
