The Art of Getting Along
Life is lived from within-out. If you look for security or harmony or cooperation on the outside, you become quickly irritated with coworkers who do not cooperate, with employers who are too demanding, and with employees who are careless and indifferent. What can be done? Get into the flow.
Whatever the conditions may be or the caliber or character of the people with whom you must work, the important thing is you are there. It is good to affirm: Wherever I am, there let me be. This means: Be a channel for the flow of the infinite creative process. If you get and stay in the flow, you will not let the attitudes and antics of other persons squeeze you into their mold; you will let the Spirit within you sustain you with all that you need of love and understanding and of the ideas and creativity to do your work well and to be a bigger person in the process.
What can you do when you are surrounded by people with whom you have little in common, people who may appear to be beneath you, people who even resist your efforts to get along with them? You can turn on more light. “It is better to bring a light than to curse the darkness.” You may wonder why you are there. The important thing is that, at the moment, you are there. And wherever you are, God is. Wherever you are, there is a flow of light and love.
Turn on the Light
A person in a dark room may be bumping into obstacles everywhere as he or she fumbles for the light switch. Suddenly he or she touches the switch, and the room is flooded with light. Nothing in the room is altered. Nothing is made, added, or taken away. Yet in a flash it is all changed. Whereas it had been filled with menacing objects and hazardous footing, now it has become a place of comfort and utility. In the same sense, we may be embroiled in a horrendous experience with hostile people. If we can turn on the light or get into the flow of transcendent love, a miracle of harmony and understanding may unfold. It has been said, “It takes two to make a quarrel.” What is not often realized is that it only takes one to commence the dissolution process.
You may feel that you would have no difficulty in getting along with people if you could get into an environment more conducive to friendship and love. However, the answer is not in finding the right person, but in being the right person.
Every morning, before setting out into the world, or before making the initial contact with the world through watching or reading the morning news, it is the better part of wisdom to prepare yourself by a prayer or meditation to get consciously in the flow of life. It is a simple matter of getting your lights turned on before you face any darkness in the world or in human behavior. In the flow of love, you will tend to see and respond to the divinity in all persons. Instead of expecting the world and the people in it to make your day happy or harmonious, you will establish yourself in the kind of consciousness that you desire to experience, letting it flow forth through you and go forth from you.
Excerpted from In the Flow of Life by Eric Butterworth (Unity Books, 1982).