Paige Thomas DeHart

Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 “Project Charlie,” a volunteer program that I am teaching at Laurel’s school, is helping me to see that I am someone special … not because I am “chosen” or because I am super-evolved above others, but because there is no one else in the world exactly like me. My value already exists. I don’t have to achieve anything to bring it about. That concept is very hard for me to comprehend. I am already there if being valuable is the objective.  Now, realizing it is a whole different story.

I put Toy Story on for Hope yesterday. The scene that stuck out to me was when Buzz Lightyear realized that he was “just a toy” and not really a “space ranger.”  He was bummed.  I could relate.  Woody told him that there was no such thing as “just a toy.”  He was someone’s toy and the little boy who he belonged to thought that he was a really cool toy.

I know that I have circled through this same thing over and over again, but I guess it’s just a deeper level or something.  It feels like the first time.  Once again, I’m realizing that I am “just a human being.”  However, yesterday I got to see that I am someone’s mother and someone’s wife and someone’s friend and that they love me.  Even more I could see how blessed I am to have these “someones” in my life.

In a sense, we really are nothing without relation to those around us.  Einstein’s theory of relativity goes a lot further than time or space.  I guess the bottom line is that I am seeing that I am not separate from those around me.  We are a part of each other … a part of this cosmic weave called “life.”  I am someone special, but so is everyone.  Once again, on a deeper level, I see that there is no such thing as an ordinary person in an extraordinary world.

Unmasked Excerpt

Becoming Human

March 3, 1998