I See You and You are My Gift to Freedom

"When the world begins to overwhelm you, it is because you are looking too far from your own path....respond fully and openly to those who present themselves to you. They are the guardians and guideposts of your unique lessons."  Matri: Letters from the Mother, Zoe Ann Nicholson

If I read too many tweets, too many status posts from subscribers, it doesn't take long before I feel a strange, twist of discomfort with all the issues and problems in this World. Frustration and anger rises. I want to post rebuttals, get into it. I suddenly feel like it's all so hopeless. Where did that come from? I wonder. And then I realize...I am going too far from my path; from what is right in front of me. There is so much help I can do if I stay calm, centered, in the present, and being with whatever and whoever is standing and looking at me.

Maybe it is the young woman on the train this morning with a blanket around her, colorful enough that for a second makes me think it is a long coat. But it isn't. I need to ask if she is in trouble, needs something, is homeless, why without a coat? But I once I hear the train schedule is being interrupted, I get off the train, and remember her just now, and I sigh. I forgot her.

Maybe it is the woman I tutor with here in the Bronx who likes to talk when we aren't with students, rather than me preferring to get on this computer and write. She's talking to me now and my neck is sore from turning around, but each time I do, I realize we are sharing a moment. I bought her a coffee this morning and she shared her sandwich with me. "We're a good team," I tell her, and she smiles, going back to her newspaper as I turn to type.

Maybe it's my friend who texts me news about her ailing mother. "Can you meet for coffee?" she asks and I do it, turning off "The View" to go and see her.

Maybe it's my daughters, grown, and working hard to live a free, full, hearty life. I am learning to text them first. How are you? shows up on their phones before they can beat me to it. Just a feather dropped to them, telling them your mama loves you.

Maybe it's the person in front of me. The woman in the public bathroom at the mirror, brushing her hair as I wash my hands, and both of us feeling the distance, the DNA-learned distrust we automatically put between us, judging, positioning, rejecting. Next time I will smile, meet her eye, and know I have sent a wave of kindness into the energetic movement of the Universe. When we women begin to regard each other with kindness, the revolution will be complete.

The past is gone. Thank goodness. The future is baking in this present. We are the Merlin the Magicians we have been waiting for. We are who is right in front of us at this exact moment and it is an opportunity to plant the seed of love. The victor is us. It always has been and always will be.

Mother Teresa said it best: "I believe in person to person. Every person is Christ to me, and since there is only one Jesus, that person is the one person in the world at that moment."

And I intend to remember this the minute I am standing in front of an awkward situation with an angry-fed-up-with-the-world person. Even if it's only me.


Sheela Wolford is the creator of Workshops by Wolford. She lives in Brooklyn with a cat nicknamed Catcow and who has no problem standing in front of her demanding to be brushed, again and again.