poeple

 

People frequently tell me that they do not understand people anymore.

Sure you do. You are one.

And people are a hot mess. You are a hot mess.

People are essentially selfish and generous, judgemental and kind. They are both/and beings, not either/or. Not so much contradictory as paradoxical. They all have an inner child who is scared, an inner teenager who is angry at the world all of the time, and an inner adult who is just so tired of all the drama (actually, just tired). The things you see and do not like in other people are the things you see and have yet to befriend in yourself. In other words, projection. The presence and the absence of people in our lives are, equally, almost unbearable (and yet we bear them). As is your presence and your absence in the life of someone else.

You are a pain in the ass. And I love you (in small doses).

When we say we do not understand people we are really saying that we do not want to know ourselves. We hide, ashamed of our nakedness, in the trees and hope not to be seen, declaring self-knowledge too great a burden to bear or to share.

But you were made to know and be fully known. You were made for union with God and neighbour. With people. And God comes looking, looking for you as friend. And of this God, you do not need to be afraid.