Calling on My Curiosity
By Heather Ramsey, MA CPCC PCC
Yes, I am as guilty as anybody of casting negative judgments on things I don't know enough about or understand. How do I work on it? I get curious. Curiosity leads to a new way of understanding things which can help connect us to them and to a whole new way of being.
Why would they do that?
I flinch in disgust as we pass the small canal at the edge of the farmlands. Plastic bottles, white shopping bags, a shoe, cardboard boxes and what looks like a heap of clothes lay along the bank. "Clunkshhhh" my horse steps on a plastic container but keeps right on walking. I am frustrated that people would dump so much trash right near their homes and farms. Don't they care about what it looks like around them? What about the environment? I huff and loosen the reigns of the horse to get closer to our guide.
She is sitting back easily on her horse, her grey hair back in a ponytail and a warm smile on her face. I ask her about all the trash in the canals. She explains that this is the Egyptian form of recycling. Everything that we see is "garbage in transit." Within days everything along this canal will be taken and used by others or burned. Thousands of people live in these farmlands and there are no official forms of trash pick up, so where else would it go? Here these people are doing what they can with the situation they have. It seems they have even found a way to change the lack of trash pick-up into something that works for them. Actually, it seems pretty resourceful. Who am I to judge?
You do what?
"You fast for a month?" I say to the woman that works with us. In my mind I am thinking, OK a day or a week maybe, but a whole month? "And you are looking forward to this?" I summon my curiosity asking, "Well, tell me more about Ramadan?" She explains how it is a very happy time of year for Muslims. It is one of the five pillars that a Muslim person will follow. Part of it is sacrificing for God. During the fasting people are putting themselves in the shoes of the poor. By going sunup to sundown with no water and no food they feel what it is like to not have these basic needs.
Ramadan is a time for people to give to the poor and as I see it be thankful for what you do have. If we are curious and look closer we can see that it has special meaning and purpose for those that practice it, thus at least in my case, bringing out a respect for the tradition and the people that follow it.
I found my curiosity a huge resource while living in Egypt. I found myself celebrating the differences and excited about the challenges.
So, this month try to notice when you start to cast that judgment. I challenge you to stop, take a closer look, ask questions remaining open to the answers, and really take in all that you can learn or understand about that which you are judging.
I am curious to see how it goes!