Everything is Fine. Nothing is Ruined.

As of late, it has occurred to me that everything is fine. Nothing is ruined, and everything is working exactly as it ought to work. This is a significant revelation. Looking around, it's easy to see a multitude of things that are, let's just say, "Sub-optimal." And yes, absolutely this is true. We, as a species, have a lot of growing to do. But that is just it: we have growing to do. We don't look at a baby and speak of how terrible it is that it can't walk, eat without making a mess, or wipe its own butt. It's a baby. Making messes and mistakes is just par for the course of growing up. 

Is there anything we can do to make a baby walk even faster? Come on, baby, you're two months old! The fact your aren't walking is a disgrace! No, there's literally nothing we can do. The baby will walk when the baby is ready to walk. Now, there are certainly things we can do to hinder the baby. Abuse goes a long way for that. But the most perfect and loving of atmospheres will only bring it to what it can achieve in the time it takes to achieve it without an abusive environment. This can be applied directly to humanity.

Whether of science or of spirituality, our species is perhaps an adolescent teen. We have great amounts of learning to undergo. But that learning cannot be rushed. It can be hindered, and we can do our best to reduce the hinderances, but it will not be rushed. It will take as long as it takes. We can certainly slow it down, of course, and that is exactly what we do if we do not learn to engage with the world in a mature manner ourselves. 

Given that we are of teen mindset, our ideas of maturity are often lacking. Like my own teens, they may hold some, let's say, "interesting," ideas about life. Sometimes, they are quite insightfully beyond the foolish ways of we ol' dodgers, but in other ways they are oh so ignorant as they repeat the failures of all before them. And if there's one thing I've learned, I can't speed up that process beyond what they are willing to accept—I can only slow it down.

The baby will walk when the baby is ready to walk.

Now, yes, I can provide an environment where they are more comfortable to seek and learn and this is better than if I ignored them entirely, but ignoring them is itself a detriment. Providing the proper atmosphere brings them to their fastest potential but it will not go any further. Even if I were the best parent in the world, they will be learning their lessons at their own pace and the best thing I can do is support them while they learn their lessons in the way they choose.

This can be maddening for someone who "knows the way," but if it truly is maddening, then we have truly not understood the way. This may be hard to grasp in our teenage years of human maturity. Many of us are still complaining about the color of cup we were served at dinner while many may have moved beyond toward concepts of love while still being entirely hung up on fairness. Few it is at this point who truly grasp maturity to the level of peace as we watch the growth with a knowing smile. 

At the peak of immaturity, we want what we want, we want it now, and to hell with others. Many adults still work this way. Such people consider fairness in as much as it involves them. If someone else's slice of pie is bigger, it is not fair and it becomes a call for justice. Even something as simple as playing a game is a source of outrage if we do not succeed at dominating our opponents.

As we mature, we recognize that games are about the enjoyment of the competition—not the winning. We recognize that fairness isn't the goal—it's joy with what we have. While many can repeat these sentiments, few there are who can live them. It's not that we're unable, however, it's that we have yet to reach that level of awareness. We still see things as important that simply are not, and we make assumptions regarding the stories we're told as if we know more than we possibly could. Like teens, we get wise in our own wisdom and think we are capable of meeting out judgements out on others, but the next level of maturity reveals itself as comprehending that there is never a need for judgement. 

There is no cosmic burden to do just the right thing to awaken the masses.

Such a statement is hard to comprehend if one is still operating out of lower awareness, but it is the truth. And it's a truth we cannot simply explain to someone any more than we can explain to our delinquent children that marrying "the love of their life" is perhaps an unwise decision. They've decided the lesson they wish to learn and learn it they shall. And honestly, it's not bad thing. It's an experience and all too human as we learn and grow. But collectively, we begin to grow out of these things. It's a slow process for sure, but we as a species slowly begin to learn that things like the golden rule truly are best in their approach. Such teachings have been around for ages, but we see people living it more and more as our environments begin to make it easier.

Environment is itself the point. The most righteous of ways would leave one dead in an alley back in the days of yore. It's not that such a person was wrong or foolish, it's that the global consciousness wasn't yet there. But get there we shall over time. We can't wake people up ourselves. We can't preach just the right message. We can't make just the right social movement. Nothing we do in desperation will make any sudden leaps of understanding. Only time will do. As individual portions of our human collective mature, we can recognize this. We can make ourselves available to those who are seeking. We can make it easier for those who are growing with us. But we cannot blast a wisdom bomb to convert the world overnight unless the world happens to already be ready for it. 

As disappointing as this may seem, it provides a great deal of relief. There is no cosmic burden to do just the right thing to awaken the masses. There is no rush, there is no secret, and there is no burden. The greatest single thing any one of us can do is live it. As we live it, we show the way to others. Others will see it, and it will provide the environment they need to enable growing at their own pace. Anything more than living it will become a burden and slow the process. We can still do great and interesting things if we have a unique passion in our own living of the way, but it is not a burden to be sought. We don't need to fix anything if it is not in alignment with who, and what, and where we are. We can be at ease as we focus on living a life of love ourselves while patiently aiding those who cross our paths.

Everything is working exactly as it should and exactly as it must. To quote my dear friend Strong Bad, "Everything is fine. Nothing is ruined."