Thursday, September 29, 2011

Įsiterpimas - 'an Insertion'

Along the chores of mundane life I mostly experience through our own perception. 'Others' do their own thing, and that may or may not affect my perceptions. Is that right? Or everyone affects everyone else anyway?
This morning I can't stop thinking on how human beings can/do affect each other in a positive way, without an active intention. Just by being aware and open. Here's how it started:
At 2am my mobile went off - a friend on the other side of the world saw my skype id is 'on' and assumed I'm awake and doing things late at night. I wasn't, but then I felt awake and we had our ten minutes conversation. He shared with me some stuff he is doing, he is experiencing.
I could not fall asleep any longer. Hearing of his experiences somehow blended with the things going in my mind for the last few days, and made me realise where I was going wrong. Or where I could go better ;-) In my attitudes, my perceptions, in the life's practice. Thanks buddy, I'm sure it happened unintentionally from your side. On the other hand - the fact that you picked 2am time on my part of the world, allowed your input to come in when I was most aware, with the daily chores guards down, half asleep though...
In some professional language it may be called 'an intervention'.  Does not sound right to me. Not for this kind of occurance. An 'intervention' to me has an overtone of someone stepping in intentionally, from a perspective of 'oh I know how to fix this', or a meeker intention 'let me try this, hopefully it will work'. No. no and trice no! In this case it's an 'insertion', from Lithuanian 'įsiterpimas'. Lithuanian has another word closer to the meaning of 'intervention' - 'įsikišimas'. It's like 'sticking your nose in My stuff'...
An 'insertion' (įsiterpimas) happens without breaching or crossing  one others boundaries. And makes it such a good developmental experience!  Providing both parties have their guards down, are 'aware and present' (to a degree of course, there is always other stuff going on) and are having a conversation about their authentic experiences. I such an instance it does not matter who is talking and who is listening, both are students and practitioners of life, with their boundaries open, as well as eyes and ears.
That's all nice and positive. Next question comes - how it can be extended to situations when one of the parties is not in a positive mood. There could be a variety of things on the surface - anger, fear, resentment, depression. Can the open, aware, guards down conversation happen under these circumstances? Or will the 'surplus positive' party will drain itself [be at a loss] without getting anything in return? And end up resenting the exchange? I suspect a return exists, even it may not feel positive at the time. V.Frankl rephrased: 'a sense of suffering or loss opens a tremendous opportunity to learn, develop, grow as a human being'. The trick is to stay authentic, free of attitude, free of expectations.
See how we go. I's  6:30am now, a Good Morning!
 
 

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