In order to do its job,
to give us the feeling of being safe secure and predictable,
the mind thinks it has to organise everything into categories.
And then, label the defined groups. (And that includes ourselves.)

Jesus did/does not agree:
“When you see a man as a woman, and a woman as a man…”
The Sages of the East take it much further:
“When the seer and the seen are one.”

Explorers have found ‘primitive tribes’ that do not live our way.
Very rare. They do not have words for anything other than the present,
and do not have words for numbers. Not too practical eh.
What is interesting though,
is they are said to be continuously and delightfully happy.
Can you say that about yourself, and the people you know/know of?

Now I am not saying that labelling is ‘a bad thing’ - it is practical,
and may have helped us to what we call: ‘develop.’

And, up to now anyway,
there has been a consequence: we have lost perspective -
in fact, we have lost contact with our true selves.

You see, you are not a son/daughter; mother/father;
police-person/accountant/politician/artist/musician -
these are just descriptive labels for something that you have chosen to do.
(you are not even, totally, a man or a woman. (Bits of each)

A closer description is that you are a unique, undefinable,
moment-to-moment alive and living phenomenon. Congratulations!

Take a look at that tree. It is not an Oak - it is not even a tree.
We have given everything a label - convenient, yes - and demeaning.
What we have labeled ‘a tree’ is an every-changing living happening.
Every single leaf on that tree has differences from every other one.
Not only is the tree unique, so is every single leaf.
(So what does that say about us!)

Take one of those leaves, put it under an election microscope -
and there is revealed a whole unique world.
And the further you go, the more unique.
(And, at the same time, the same. That’s another story.)

So deeper and deeper into that leaf
and we find that it is a unique living breathing universe.
Living thriving atoms, molecules, protons, neutrons, electrons,
and so on and so on down to… ? And each, unique.

So what to say about us!
An moment-to-moment ever changing phenomenon?

When your beloved walks into the room, look, tune in.
Drop the labels: partner, (mine!) man, woman.
Who/what is this phenomenon, in this very moment.
And who is this unique phenomenon who is experiencing
this unique phenomenon! You.

When you see a person as the familiar person, without realising it,
they respond to be the image you have placed upon them.
And the same with yourself.

I know what I am suggesting is a lot more work -
living moment to moment,
and that is the way the rest of the universe seems to work -
moment to moment.

How about an experiment this weekend?
Slow down, right down, disconnect from the normal labels,
and take more time to live in the moment - this very moment.
Treat everything and everybody
as though you are seeing it/them for the first time.

Happy un-labelled momenting