“A diamond has many polished facets and it takes them all to make it shine in its full beauty.”
-Emma Curtis Hopkins

Today I am feeling full of life. I am so grateful for this existence and for all the magnificence that accompanies me on the journey of time and space. I relish in the multiplicity that is derived from unity.

I feel one of the most healing aspects of my life has been to accept that we are all born of the same source.

To put this into practice I feel it is important to engage in this particular form of recognition: see people.

Don’t just look at people… see them.

How often do we walk around looking through people? I walk daily on the “Loop” here in Tucson. It is a network of shared biking and pedestrian trails that circumnavigates Tucson. It is 131 miles long. That’s a lot of trail to discover! As I walk I see bikers, walkers, runners, pets, wildlife, trees, mountains, clouds, rivers… it’s a wonderfully diverse and rich experience to walk the trail.

Every time I walk I am aware of the degree to which I look through it, rather than seeing it all. So I let myself have the luxury of seeing — after all as I walk I have no destination, I walk for health, so if I am not taking it in what is the point?

The people on the loop path are varied and plentiful. I choose to see them, not look through them. What I have found is that we are all joyful at our core. We all smile and we all acknowledge each other.

Why is this important to me to recount? Well, it is the reminder to take this practice into my everyday life. Where do I get so encumbered by my own thinking and inner life that I forget to see people? Am I looking through the grocery clerk? Am I looking through the bank teller? Am I looking through the barista? What is my relationship to those with whom I seemingly have no relationship?

The practice of seeing people is a practice of loving kindness. When we express loving kindness we are contributing our facet to the infinite diamond of life’s expression. The shine is unmistakable.