The Circle of "Me"

OK, would anyone like to play a little game and talk about Life at the same time?

Let's find a drawing stick. If you're outside, it might be fairly easy to find a sturdy stick about three feet long. There's one under that tree over there. Now we need to find a patch of dirt or sand. Oh yes, do you see that bare ground over yonder?

Now let's take our stick and sketch a circle. You choose if the circle is big or small. Groove it deep into the dirt to make a solid impression in the earth. Let's have a little fun now and call the circle "Me". You have just drawn the circle of yourself. Now let's label some characteristics we define as "self".

You could just say these in your mind, or write them down in a notebook. (And if any of you have decided not to find the stick and dirt, you may choose to open the notebook in the first place, having determined that a circle can be sketched on paper as well as in the sand.) There are no mistakes in this game.

So label yourself and put those labels in the circle of "Me". You might want to list exterior characteristics first. I am female (or male). I am old (or young). I am tall (or short). I am black (or white). Now let's move on and list some social roles. I am a father (or mother). I am single (or married). I am an artist (or accountant). I am....are you getting the idea? Now start with personality characteristics. I am optimistic (pessimistic). I am positive (negative). I am a feeling (thinking) person. You can also add tendencies, beliefs, thoughts and other definitions to the circle.

How big is your circle? Have you been able to write really small and get that all recorded? No matter if you could only write in a few characteristics or beliefs, or if you only said them in your mind.

Now look outside the boundaries of that circle. Outside of the circle put everything that you said you aren't. I am not....and then state what you aren't. Now we have a better idea who exists within that Circle of "Me".

And an even better idea of Who You Are Not. Or who you say you are Not.

I have a proposition to insert here, although since it's a game, this may be a made-up proposition.  A proposition suggesting that part of the Meaning of Life involves first drawing a circle and claiming a Self in this big wide world. To fully and deeply and widely claim a Self, hopefully honoring all the individual parts that make up that Self. But by claiming that Self, we're so often also claiming a separation from everything outside that circle. So after that Self is fully claimed and recognized and acknowledged.....what's next? Perhaps erasing the boundaries of the circle?

So how do we erase the boundaries of the circle....how do we keep expanding a definition of Self that includes everything that we are not? Life is offering us an easy way to erase our boundaries. It's called the Material World. The Physical World. And everything that we say we're not is a breath away, waiting to introduce itself,  waiting for acknowledgment and allowing, waiting to be included in the "what is" of the Present Moment.

And we have these wonderful extensions called feelings that tell us when we're judging, dismissing, hating, despairing or negating things outside the circle of Me. The Material World will often project in ultra-large movie-like color the characteristics and attitudes and thoughts that we are denying. So we will have beings called People in the Material World who suddenly become larger than life and mirror back to us our deepest fears and rejections and ways we haven't allowed the Self to go beyond the boundaries of the circle.

Everything outside of the circle is really a larger definition of "Me", but it's usually a "Me" that one hasn't yet fully recognized as being part of the Self. And when we feel the prickly negativities arising....we can know exactly how we're pushing away a rejected or unacknowedged part.

So when someone says something that starts our defensiveness, anger or sadness in full gear (and I am talking to myself, as well, while creating the background Proposition of the circle game) .......it is really simply an aspect of "Me" that is demanding attention. Instead of lashing out at that seemingly opposite side.....there are many ways of reconcilling, aren't there?

If we can just creep past the lovely sentinel of the Ego who is trying fiercely to keep the boundaries in order until we're ready to erase that initial circle. Ego may never completely leave us because she has several delightful roles to fill. She's keeping the Circle of Me together so we can do this process as slowly and gently and lovingly as possible. We've seen what happens when people smash the boundaries of self before they're fully ready to integrate the Everything. That's why this spiritual "journey" often takes years and possible lifetimes.

Because, until we're ready, it's best to take one "not me" aspect outside of the circle and begin courting it, examining it, looking closely at it, microscoping it, expanding it, asking it out to dinner, dreaming of a possible union of two seemingly opposite people or ideas or thoughts.

Now let's put down our sticks or pencils and look at the lines we've drawn and the marks. Eventually the circle of Me will be gone in this physical world. We'll leave our limited bodies and return to dust or earth. The boundaries will be erased. We'll meet the larger Self that we've forgotten. They say we'll be filled with love, with the Knowing of our Oneness. It's just a matter of time: the boundaries will soon be erased.

Shall we assist with this process....expanding our love a bit further outwards than we ever before imagined? Shall we do it in this Moment? Because this is the only place and time to recognize both the initial circle we've arbitrarily drawn and the larger circle of "Me" that surrounds us before we create a single boundary.