We Are More Alike, My Friends

When the world feels a bit wobbly, I know I can turn to Maya Angelou. She tells it straight, but with a tone of confidence and love that says, “We are so much bigger than we let ourselves believe.”

Her poem, "Human Family", with its thrice repeated “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike”, serves as an aspirational starting point for the practice CMP calls "Equanimity for Everyone", or, in more direct language, “Even-Heartedness.” In this practice, we familiarize ourselves with the habitual response that arises when we encounter people that we love, people about whom we are indifferent, and people who get under our skin (or worse). We touch into the truth that people fall into one of these buckets because of past moments. The stars aligned and we met our best friend, for example. If events had happened even just slightly differently, we might never have met them. How many people are out there who could be our best friends if only we met them?

Similarly, our past experiences cause us to see the world a certain way. If our past experiences were different, we might see the world differently and maybe those people who get under our skin wouldn’t.

When we allow ourselves to open to our shared human condition - the fact that we are living, breathing beings on this planet - we touch into what Angelou wants us to feel and know - that "we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

Inviting you to join us this week as we familiarize ourselves with what it is to be a living, breathing being.

May all beings feel the strength of the human connection,
Your CMP family