3P Random Reflections Blog

"Just don't be an asshole, just don't be an asshole".

Those were the amusing-to-me words that I used to say to myself in my head before I walked through the doors... Odd as it may be, those words would make me chuckle internally, and would lighten my heart and my step, and my ego.

I didn't take the words personally, I took them instructionally.

They reminded me that I wasn't a saviour, or a helper, or anyone who knew anything more than anyone else.

They reminded me that I was just a full-feeling-experiencing, beautiful human being, EXACTLY like every other human being whose eyes I would meet that day.

They reminded me that if anyone was going to be helped or saved, it was always going to be me... I just needed to allow for it... to allow myself to be awed...

...and in that awe, magic would sometimes happen.

Hmmmmm... As if awe wasn't already enough.

For me, my "don't be an asshole" mantra, was my own quirky way of leaning toward what Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries expresses as... "to be in awe for what they carry, not in judgment for how they carry it"... to realize the grace, within what often appears to be the less than graceful.

Pre-Covid, each week I would spend one day offering a "Three Principles Drop-In Hangout", and another day offering a "Listening Post", for two organizations that offered a variety of services to those experiencing the downsides of our insecure society and economy... the experiences of homelessness, poverty, addiction, trauma, illness, disability, disenfranchisement, etc.

When I first started this work, I thought it was because I had something profound to share.

What I eventually realized, was the need to leave the "I" completely out of it. To simply appear, to be, to do, and to be awed. The universe would quite capably take care of the rest.

A good mantra for living all of life, I expect.

With Love and Laughter,

Jonelle

(Photo by Luis Quintero)

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