Safely Up A Tree

"Kindly let me help you or you'll drown, said the monkey to the fish, safely putting him up a tree" -Alan Watts

A pitfall of learning better ways is becoming the savior of the world

It can begin in good intentions: a desire to help others “see the light” can very quickly lead to division between us and the proclaimed “others,” and push those who we seek to help farther away.

Once we learn what we wish we’d known before, it’s easy to forget we used to live in darkness too. Impatience, judgment and frustration comes quickly to those who resist our advice or help. This mindset inherently tells us we are still in darkness anyway -

We forget that we, too, resisted until the perfect moment- a time when we were receptive enough to take it in, and be changed. We forget that we don’t decide the journeys of others- we don’t know what missing ingredients lay ahead of them to be primed. We don’t know what learning comes first and how important those lessons in order might be.

We have to learn to swim before jumping in the ocean, and once we can swim, we must be cautious not to shove fragile swimmers face down into the water.

There is a time for everything and everyone. And in our desire to help, let’s take caution not to become self righteous - as this energy steals away from our ability to see each other as fellow travelers on a road - and we can never help someone we can’t understand, or see ourselves in.