A Global Urban Nomad's Reflection on Compassionate Leadership

           The endless questions into the matters of the heart are perhaps the most complex condition of human nature. The tensions between the distinctions of the self and the other is drawn toward connection, yet the distance is an infinite space between the desire of unity and the limits of our physical nature of individualism. We look into the face of our beloved and as we gather ever closer in exploring the domains of the public, private, blind and the moment of the unfolding “unknown; unknown.” 

While encompassed in the fractal nature of the universe, impermanence carries us through the limits of our temporality; our spirit's sense we can exceed the grounding materialism of the physical. Our energetic states at the quantum dimensions seek to co-habitate our hearts together as entangled particles inseparable in superposition. This is the divine nature of "two become one" perhaps the metaphysical basis for that curious spiritual concept for marriage described by Christ; “Two flesh shall become one.” This ancient mystery seemingly less paradoxical as our learning of the universe unfolds her deepest mysteries beyond the dimensions of the physical space we are so certain of and believe to be concrete. And thus so, as "conscious intent" is the quantum collapsing of our perceived permanence of reality.

Here we are entangled in a strange attractor; drawing ourselves to opposing forces that depending upon our state. Empower to influence possibility as it can be annihilated, absorbed, or deflected by thought alone. What then; if we are merely multi-dimensional coherent energy states collapsed by conscious observation? There seems a meaningless then to the social order, to love, to family... as though life is merely a spark of light and a fading mist. Begging questions of our compassion. For instance, why do we hold ideals? What is it to say that conscious mind is but our vibrating sub-atomic particles cycle up to electron and atom, cycle up to protein and glucose, cycle up to cellular organelles and organs, cycle up to the human body and brain, cycle up to relationships and families, cycle up to community and city, cycle up to county and state, cycle up to nations and society, cycle up to ecosystems and humanity? It seems shocking, all these layers of complexity are purely for random sake? It seems all too elegant for such an obtuse thought, yet this is what we are left with… our human drive to make some meaning of it. The leading question; Why?

Life is aware of life; and in that self-aware consciousness, asks itself why it lives. Smiling back at herself; she answers, “I don’t know; you tell me.” Here in lies the mystery of life an enfolded question within the question itself; the very nature of the infinite unfolding of the “unknown; unknown.” Life then is; what we believe life to be... the legacy of storytelling retold of each of our unique lives and shared experiences alike.

Or better yet, Life is what we ask of it to be. So it becomes clear, it is possible for every answer to be discovered if only for the "right" questions to be asked. Thus questions are the key; the answers merely lead us to the next questions. This is in fact the gift of nature; an infinite expanding universe. We are gifted the human opportunity to pass on the story of Life; Lived, one to another. A legacy of our shared discovery and wonderment of the limitless wide expanses of our own curiosity to explore the most beautiful of all questions; Why?

Life is an experience. Let us not lose our childlike wonder and innocence in discovering its nature, power, and curious ways. Let us not lose that adventure in exchange for our worldly understandings. Understanding is at best a limited minute fraction of the so-called known universe; delimited as firing circuits of electrochemical excitations; action potentials, flashing as waves across the neural paths on the nano-scale. Let us rather re-tell the stories of the heart; of courage overcoming fear. Let us re-imagine ourselves into our emerging highest being where we find it is truly our intentions that bend the very fabric of the universe. Here; self-actualized, we become the makers of reality and destiny alike. We can be and become anything we put our mind and hearts to; anything. This truth is the manifest to form creators whom design by source of thier adaptive resilience.

So then let me begin, my favorite story is one as old as time; Love, the story of our human connectedness. An utterance of not merely one’s tongue but the expression of one’s own heart. Love is a resonance; seeking harmony in accompaniment to the melody of compassion suspended in time at a pace of passion’s rhythms.

Let us start then with Why?

Why do I love you? Because you are…In that being, you are the mystery of the universe; Life.  

Last summer while on nomadic walkabout, I found myself strolling along the elevated trestle of the Highline in Manhattan, New York. In that moment, I was overwhelmed by a thought- every passing face was once a child. Granted, not every child enters the world in the most loving of circumstance and environments, yet new life and birth is a predominately a joyous experience. My heart was over pouring with a sense of the beauty of life. It occurred to me that each of these unknown people of whom I will likely never see again; literally hundreds of lives passing in rapid succession, were each one celebrated by those they call family. Each person; a cherished child, the joy of their mother and father.

My heart was beaming with joy and optimism having this realization; until reaching the sobering experience of the 9/11 memorial at the far end of Highline. A sudden and stark reminder of what happens in the world when we forget to celebrate the joy of each life. The stories of the losses are etched into the wall; names of those same joyous souls were lost in tragedy cut into black marble stone as hardened scars. A bleak reminder of how much we must grab onto our "love for one another." I personally recall the experiences of the 9/11 tragedies and the pain I felt from my prior visit to NewYork 15 years at "Ground Zero."

Ironically, my question then was also; why? What could motivate someone to such drastic means of destructiveness and loss? Sadly, it was the stories we told and believed. It was the "otherness" we created instead of connective generative Love; we formed Hate. We sought out to see our differences and not our connectedness; a despised each other for them forgetting our common human connections.

All this time later, there is a deep wound and the memorial's water flows into the depths of the lost moorings of the Twin Towers. They tell the a story and represent the tears of a nation and world who had lost their joy. Life is irreplaceable; as is our irreplaceable uniqueness. Yet, we are paradoxically suspended in our interconnectedness. Let us not tarry to celebrate each other delaying until death separates us from our temporary realm. Rather in compassion, let us press in and love one another in every beautiful moment of uniqueness. We may only have the impermanent present moment to give each other. My tongue and heart confess; the restoration of hearts through compassionate love is the story of all time, all song, all muse. Love is the interconnection of our souls.

In Love's many meanings, 

Jeffrey Mrizek