Arriving Home :: Meeting Our Own Humanness

Meeting Our Own Humanness

I grew up in a household that was very traditional, yet at the same time progressive. My parents are conservative, have high moral values and raised my siblings and I in the middle of rural Ohio. When I say rural, I literally mean in the middle of cornfields and horse barns. While this upbringing allowed for a simple very nature-based life for all of us, (my brother, sister and I would play outside in the forests, woods, rivers, farms and ponds all day, everyday), my parents were also very open-minded to growth, creative solutions and as they put it, "doing the right thing." 

My mother was highly involved in the Landmark Forum, a personal development group that hosted weekly seminars to teach people how to transform their lives, minds, and find true fulfillment and success. She brought me to the weekly seminar meetings starting at the age of 10, and soon I was enrolled in Landmark's children, teen and young adult seminars until I was 17. It was in these seminars where I first encountered real human transformation. I would listen to the adults share, cry and commit to new change and growth in their lives. In the teen's seminar, I first learned about taking personal responsibility, being authentic and the difference between my opinions on what would happen in my life versus the facts of what actually happened. Sometime along my journey growing up in Landmark, I learned a piece of wisdom that has stuck with me ever since, which is that each of us humans are perfectly imperfect. It is our imperfections that make us perfectly who we are.

It was also around the age of 17 that I first learned how to meditate. While I instantly felt more peaceful and started to experience a level of deeper self-connection and self-awareness, it wasn't until later when I experienced a very devastating early-adult trauma that I found myself needing the support of meditation. I remember during that time the little glimpse of healing I felt in meditation was my through-line to the total healing I knew deep down I truly needed. 

I came through this period of time with newly accumulated scars of imperfections. It was in meditation where I learned to meet these imperfections, wounds, vulnerabilities, deep emotions and the desire to heal with the solid foundation I was building through daily meditation. 

Health, wellness and mindfulness became part of my healing equation too. I particularly found that mindfulness grew my capacity to not only meet any emotion, feeling, memory or self-judgment directly, but it taught my heart to open and to learn from all of my challenges of trauma. I learned the healing power of compassion, and it was through compassion that my imperfections and scars became the part of me that allowed for the most transformation, growth and ability to accept others for their humanness too.

During my years of meditation, it has become clear that the richness of life comes from the traversing of our own moments and experiences. The sweet healing, growth and transformation that comes through life's darker moments grows our ability to understand what it means to be a perfectly imperfect human. 

And it is our imperfections which make us that much more compassionate and able to meet humanness in all forms with unconditional understanding. 

May you meet your imperfections, challenges, heartaches and humanness with love, courage and compassion. 

With Love, Amanda