Oneness

I have been very fortunate to work in areas of diversity and multicultural. It has taught me a lot about oneness. Currently, at the school I work, our seniors are applying to college and waiting for the next four months to see if all the hard work they have endured will amount to something. They are experiencing fears, questioning their worth, and wondering if there is anything they could have done better or if they are enough to be accepted. These feelings are familiar as adults; we call this the "waiting game." Waiting to hear back from a doctor, knowing that you were brave enough to get something checked. Waiting for a loved one to pass in a hospice, waiting for your partner to return after deployment. Finding out you are pregnant and waiting nine months, hoping the baby is healthy and will survive.

The waiting game is an inevitable pattern in life, which we all can relate to at any age. Students will ask for advice on handling this because they are losing sleep, waking up in the middle of the night, and fears swarming their minds. I will share some self-care tips and ask whether they have any spiritual beliefs. This is where the oneness starts to shine. An individual student nodded yes to this question, and because most of my students are Muslim,I asked them, " Your god is Allah, right? I then said, could you surrender your fears and worries to them? The student smiled and said yes! I pray to them every night. They then went on to tell me that they believe Allah has a plan for them and trust in it. This is the best medicine we can give ourselves during the waiting game. For others, you might pray to God. For some, it might be the Goddess, ancestors, or Mother Earth.

When I saw this individual's response to my question, I thought their Allah sounded like my Great Spirit. We walk this earth feeling so different from our cultures to our religions because they may look different or have other names, but at its core, we are all asking for the same thing in life. I never felt more oneness sitting across from this individual.

What would it be like if we looked beyond the surface differences like race, religion, class, gender, culture, etc., and saw what is at its core, humanness? We are so much more the same than we are different.