Special Strangers

"We are all “strangers” in this world. We are all “special children.” All in need and deserving of unconditional love. Some people’s specialness is more obvious than others. Some exceptional souls are concealed beneath a veneer of “normalcy” and established “comfort zones.” Others, less fortunate on one end, but more so on another, do not have the mask of “regularity” which hides their special souls. When the mask of the ”ordinary” is torn off or exposed due to trauma or loss, suddenly extraordinary dimensions emerge, ones that we were not aware of.

But all our souls are strangers on this material planet. The only difference between people is that some know this fact and some don’t.
Some think that they have “made their home” and are comfortable in the corporeal reality and its institutions. To the extent that they feel there is nothing else but what I see and hear, nothing more than the here and now that I experience with my senses. Material beings on a material journey, with perhaps some bouts of spiritual, transcendent experiences. Isn’t that what we call “maturity” and “success” – to have finally made it, leaving behind the naiveté and inexperience of youth, mastering and controls of power and influence in this world?

And others – far fewer – know that they are souls on a spiritual journey through a material universe, on a bodily stage with physical props, and are thus always “strangers,” even when they build their homes and learn the ropes to maneuver through the conventions of “establishment.” As accustomed and as friendly as they become to the tangible world, as immersed as they may be, they never become “part” of this world, always remain “above and beyond,” strangers enchanted and even apprehensive of the material reality around them.

Love the stranger, for you too were – and always are – a stranger in your own limitations and constraints (Mitzrayim)."

- Rabbi Jacobson, Meaningful Life Center