Communication is an interesting business. Communication is a process of exchange. It comes about when two or more people desire to express their ideas, their opinions, their feelings. For communication to come about there is generally an interchange – a giving and a taking. One gives one’s impression, not only in words, as communication can also involve emotions and actions, and one receives the impressions of another.
If this giving and taking, this exchange, happens in agreement, when both or all parties are in agreement on a subject, the outcome can be quite exhilarating. An exchange on an equal level takes place, all participants come away feeling enlightened, uplifted, as if they have gained or been given something. But, if agreement cannot be reached, and this is more often the case, the exchange is not equal and participants come away feeling a sense of dissatisfaction, of having sacrificed something. Indeed, what has been offered in the exchange has not been met with something equal to it. One person may come away feeling “victorious”, the other with a sense of loss. Not only may he or she have lost an argument but they may also have lost part of their sense of “self”.
So communication is thus quite “tricky” – rather like a tennis match or other ball game where the aim is to keep the ball within the boundaries for as long as possible. Effective communication takes effort. It requires us to be sensitive, to listen, to think before responding. It’s not always possible or achievable, but we can always try.
From a spiritual perspective there is also communication. An ongoing, never-ending communication between a divine source, which we call by many names, and ourselves, members of humanity, but also with all inhabitants of our planet. It is a call, a giving out, which has accompanied us forever and waits for our response. Our reply can be positive or it can be negative. There can be an openness to the call or resistance towards it. As in any exchange the outcome is up to us. How will we reply?
