PERCEPTION

I am late getting started on my blog because I got my first professional haircut in many years. Since 1958 I have had two maybe three haircuts by a professional. Jamie has cut my hair for the last 40+ years. She has been urging me to go to a real barber and has used the excuse of her recent surgery. She feels she can't stand up that long and I look like a homeless man and shouldn't wait until she can. I don't object to looking like a homeless person but I gave in when she said, "You'll be doing a favor to those who have to look at you." We have a local barber right in our community and she did a wonderful job.

I have mentioned my chickens a few times. Besides my old hens, we are raising 25 broilers and 25 pullets. The people we get our chickens from throw in an extra chicken for each 25 ordered. It is always fun to observe what breed the extra chickens will be. In this order we got a Cuckoo Maran, a French breed, they look like Barred Plymouth Rocks except that they have silvery grey legs rather than yellow legs.

Yesterday, my neighbor from across the lake was visiting, we were sitting on the porch looking over the world. We heard a young rooster crow. I assumed it was one of our broilers. Their growth is accelerated and they generally crow before a standard breed will. I looked, and all I could see standing there, was the Cuckoo Maran. I figured the broiler must have ducked out. As I was looking, the Cuckoo Maran got into position and gave out with a lusty crow. I couldn't believe my eyes. She is a he? I thought it was a hen. A rooster? I assumed the extra chicken was a hen- so I saw hen. I saw what I programmed myself to see. It is true, chickens that are only twelve weeks old do not necessarily show much gender difference. It is obvious in some breeds and subtle in others. But experienced chicken raisers can see the difference, I just didn't really look. My perception matched my assumption, until the truth hit me between the eyes.

That is one of the dilemmas we are overcoming. For years our perception has been colored by our programming. It isn't just the Main Stream Media doing the programming. It is our entire culture; religion, politics, corporations, governments etc. They would all like us to see, what they want us to see. It is a shell we are breaking out of. A good example is our attitude toward homosexuality. We have smashed our way out of that shell. We see it entirely differently than we did just a few years ago. In terms of population, it took only a few change agents to get us to open our hearts and minds. Of course, we have further to go.

That change was made on the basis of Love. All are equal. All deserve love. So many of our prejudices are hidden from us, because they are based on perception. We absorbed how we see from our families and wider culture. How we see is not truth. It is the way we have been programmed to see. The truth may not be available to us in this illusion, but Love is. We can choose to see everything with love. If we see only with love, we will come as close to truth as we can.

Let us live our lives by making all our decisions with love. When we react negatively to something we perceive,  lets ask our higher selves, if we can see differently. How does it look through eyes of unconditional love?

I got to do dishes and then go get milk from the Amish.

Love and Peace,  Gregg