I’m so blessed…I have a variety of friends…all types! If you think about it, I bet you have a variety of friends, too. I like many types of people, and you probably do too. My friends have a variety of interests and personalities, and time spent with them is stimulating. My friends are different ages, cultures, ethnicites, and backgrounds. I can’t think of one of them who is just like me. If I had to spend time with people just like me, I’d be bored!
Friends bring a lot of growth, interest, understanding, and support to our lives. I personally believe that the people in our lives are here for a multitude of reasons, but mostly they are here to teach us, as we are here to teach them.
Over 25 years ago, I studied, and later instructed, a course based on developing loving attitudes. In the course, we used an ancient language, the Aramaic, to explain concepts of what it meant to be loving to others, to ourselves, and to Spirit. Aramaic is a language which was spoken by some of the greatest spiritual leaders of all time, and the language is still alive in the world today.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love words! The Aramaic language has the most fascinating and complex words I’ve ever studied. The words of the Aramaic are rich in implications of psychology, physiology, and spirituality…translation is difficult to less complex languages.
An Aramaic word, pagra, is a principle which I keep alive in my own life. Pagra, in fact, means new life, and it refers to relationships among people.
Pagra is the creation of a new, or third life, or energy, which contains shared values, attitudes, beliefs, and goals of 2 or more people. Every 2 people, or group, shares some values, some attitudes, some goals….and what 2 or more people share creates their pagra. A couple, a family, a team, a group, a parent and child, all share a pagra….any time we connect to another person, we share a pagra….that is, shared values, attitudes, beliefs, and goals.
Our pagra is living energy….therefore at times our pagra becomes bigger, stronger, and more powerful because we share more values, ideas, beliefs with another person, or group. At other times, our pagra may shrink when we share less and less.
Pagra is easy to demonstrate by drawing 2 (or more) circles. Each circle represents a person. The circles move, because they are living energy. Where the circles overlap, where people have shared values, the pagra exists. Imagine that 2 people share many of the same values….their circles overlap almost completely, they have a large pagra. When 2 people disagree, find that they have little in common, their circles move apart, and they may no longer overlap at all….they have little or no pagra.
When we give our attention, our energy, our focus to something in our lives, it grows in strength. When any 2, or more, people, concentrate on the shared values, ideas, and beliefs they share, their pagra grows in strength.
- Pagra is the real connection we have with others.
- Real connection is an awareness, and a joy choice.
- Real connection cannot be made by one person.
- Real connection requires 2 or more to make it work.
- Real connection means looking for the common ground, the pagra, that exists in what we share with others.
- Real connection means looking for the good in others, choosing to see what is good, is loving, is shared.
Choose to strengthen the pagras you have with people and groups you love and appreciate.
Find ways to increase and understand shared values, ideas, and beliefs. Your life will be richer for it, and your joy will increase!
Joy & Blessings, Carole xx