Writing in Relationship: Oneness and Separation

In Chop Wood, Carry Water, Rick Fields and his colleagues write this:

“There are two cornerstone ideas that appear again and again in most spiritual writings on relationships.

“On the one hand, there is the notion that we are all one. Not only are we all related to each other as travelers on planet earth, but in a spiritual sense our essences are inextricably intertwined. We come from the same source and we are all on a common journey.

“On the other hand, there is the notion that each of us is whole, complete, and perfect–exactly as we are. All that we need is contained within us . . .

“The challenge of relationships, then, is to consciously make use of the double-edged sword of their paradoxical nature. The path of relationships leads us through the veil of separation to a realization of our ultimate oneness.”

As I write, I often think about Fields’s words and the paradox he so aptly describes. I use this paradox as I construct stories. As I think about the people who inhabit my fiction, I consider the complex ways their lives are interwoven. I continually remind myself that, however differently they may appear, their journeys are all, in truth, the same. I consider the fact that one each of them is whole and perfect, and I love to experiment with ways they discover that they already have exactly what they need.

There is another way I think about the paradox of relationships when I write. I remind myself that writing, too, is a path that leads us through the “veil of separation.” Through writing and reading, we come back to the awareness that the writer, the reader, and all beings are One. Few things inspire me more.