A few months back I posted on my Facebook wall a controversial quote from a guy that has pretty radical views. Naturally it caused a mixed response which was small compared to the post I shared the day before. I laugh as I sit here and share this blog with you because I am once again opening up my life for all to see.
You see I must confess, like most if not all of us that post and share everyday something personal from the heart, that I used to check the “Likes” and “comments” religiously. If I am honest I loved it when I saw the numbers climb and the shares increase. It made me feel like I had been useful that day in helping others but if I am really honest I really loved it because it made me feel loved and popular.
Some months down the road after the not so popular post, I am reflecting on the difference I feel within after a post that does not attract the interest or feedback others do. You see something is happening within me as I learn to live engaged to this life of mine but not attached to it. In the past I was attached to it 150%. Every comment, like, and share, were like oxygen to my false identity and person. I craved it and the more I got it the better I felt about myself. Today as I transfer from attachment to engagement I find that only 35% of me, if its possible to put a number to it, still craves this popularity dose and the rest of me just observes it and is not affected whether is popular or not.
When we learn to engage instead of attaching ourselves we usher and invite an ability to observe life instead of always judging it. As we do this we learn to be more gracious and less judgmental towards others as well as ourselves as we are able to see things as they really are and not as we thought they were.
In Jesus we see an individual who was able to engage and disengage life at a moments notice. This was an awesome quality he possessed as he was able to enter any situation with any person with no pre conceived agendas or results in mind. This gave him the freedom to observe, listen, and act as it delivered him from the need to control everything and everyone around him so that love, grace, and life could do their work unconditionally.
Engagement is inspired and fueled by love and our hearts and it enables us to set ourselves and others free from the false expectations of our ego. It places us in a space where we can learn to love people because we want to and not because we need them or something from them. Attachment kills, steals, and destroys us and others as we seek to find through our manipulation, control, and conditional love what only a life of engagement can bring.
Keep holding it loosely! 🙂
-pablo—
Photo by Unknown
