I have fallen in love with conversation. It is not just the exchange of words; ideas. It is to pry open the part of you that is often fostered alone, and in silence. In those hours of the day that you spend alone, with only your thoughts. When you analyse what it is about the world that you love, and what it is about the world that you hate, and even what it is about the world that you know nothing of but wish you did. This is where you nurture your sense of 'place' in the world. Your opinions begin to nudge you into directions. Your opinions become choices. Your choices become consequences.
When we make the decision to share, we open ourselves up to judgement. Sometimes we share, hoping that others will agree, but often...they don't. It is in these moments of disagreement that we make the choice to either let disappointment flood in, or to listen (really listen), consider another view of the world and let our understanding grow further. From here we question, sometimes ourselves, sometimes others. And where tides start to rise around our ideas/opinions; whether they were right, whether they were wrong, or whether neither is true; we have to hope in a discerning spirit. We raise a banner on the hilltop for what is true for us. Sometimes others stand with us. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes you look ahead, behind and to the side of you, and see others raising banners on other hilltops. Then you make the choice to smile and to see the cord that connects us all, no matter what our banners say. That we all want something better - for ourselves, our loved ones, our cities and countries. That's when you make the biggest decision of all...to choose to look at the cord that connects, and not the banners that divide.
