Every person lives in his or her own bubble, either by
choice, ignorance or default. This occurs more often than not. Sometimes we intentionally get inside our
bubble to seek protection, attempt to hide from our self or others, to calm
down, and even to seek enjoyment. But we
soon discover that despite our best attempts, we don’t really want to stay inside our bubble all the time. Fortunately,
the bubble invariably pops when we least expect it to. Unfortunately,
we then tend to simply find another bubble to inhabit.
The bubble appears to be real. It is, after all, our bubble and we created
it, so of course we believe it is real. The bubble allows us to see everything as we
want. We can justify our actions, judge
others, gluttonously feed our egos from an endless buffet of poisons,
procrastinate with ease, and nurse our self-imposed wounds with warped
biofeedback mechanisms. We even insist
others must get inside our bubble, so they can see things from our
perspective. However, we tend to forget
that the walls of our bubble are tinted.
The tint inhibits each of our senses from functioning at highest
capacity. We see what we want to
see. Hear what we want to hear. Express our emotions without regard to anyone
else’s feelings. Ironically, without
tint, our bubble would be clear and we could float along happily without the
need for a bubble to begin with.
Bubbles have no particular shape, size or age. Babies depend entirely upon others to understand
and respond to them from inside the baby’s bubble. As parents, we do this willingly because we
know the baby can’t express in words what he or she is experiencing, so we
patiently learn the language of their bubble.
By the time the child is two years old, we wonder why he or she is so
stubborn and is determined to have things his or her own way. Suddenly our bubbles collide. This is good because it allows us to evaluate
our own limits and boundaries, and helps us teach our child to do the
same. However, as the child grows into
adolescence we may start to feel like we’re in the middle of a bubble war. (Or is it a war inside a bubble?) Parents sometimes use the
“I-hate-to-pop-your-bubble, but” card in a feeble attempt to explain something
to their teenager, which the parent thinks is vital for their child to
know. And the parent often screams this
information, opinion, or point of view from inside his or her own bubble,
wondering why the message won’t get through the thick, tinted walls of the child’s
bubble. (Or is it from the dense walls
of the parents’ bubble?) While it’s true
a teenagers’ bubble can be difficult to penetrate, perhaps if the parent simply
began peeling the tint away—to help clear the child’s vision—there wouldn’t be
so many exploding bubbles leaving a spray of misunderstanding, disconnect, disrespect
and judgment. It takes time, patience, and
consistent and genuine expressions of love and acceptance to clear the tinted
walls of a teenager’s bubble. Or anyone
else’s for that matter.
It’s also important to allow others to pop our bubble. This benefits us more than it does them. It gives us an opportunity to experience
something beyond the confines of our own tinted walls, and it increases our
capacity, intellect and understanding. It’s
a weird phenomenon, but each time we experience life outside our bubble—even if
only for brief moments—the walls of our bubble become thinner and more
transparent. With thinner walls our heart becomes more permeable and our soul also more transparent. We discover that life
outside our bubble offers abundant rewards—and a whole new world to explore.
Tomorrow I'll post an awesome scene from Chapter 13 of Stelladaur: Finding Tir Na Nog, where Reilly unexpectedly finds himself inside an actual invisible bubble. Stayed tuned....you're going to love it!
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