If you’re buying your lunch from someone, what happens if he’s 20cms shorter than you?
Probably nothing, it’s no distraction, nothing to upset you.
What if he’s from another country?
What if his skin colour is a different colour?
What if he has tattoos?
What if he’s wearing a burka?
What if he uses slang you don’t like?
At some point, most people reach a level of discomfort, when our differences begin to distract us and we fixate on those differences.
Then all we see are the differences.
And we put up barriers.
It’s a lot more productive to look for what’s similar.
There’s always more in common; attitudes, experience, desires, beliefs…
And we connect.
In arguments, we often want to be right. But being right is not the same as being wise.
One of the greatest lies we tell ourselves is that we’re falling behind. That someone else is ahead.
As a young man I associated strength with force; louder voices, sharper opinions, firm lines in the sand.
There’s a strange kind of pride we’ve developed in being exhausted. But even lions, the king of the jungle, rest.
I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have ambition.
We sometimes believe strength means self-sufficiency — that being independent means being isolated.
We often try to outrun the storm, emotionally, physically, spiritually.