One size does not fit all

When I was working in corporate America diversity was a big issue. I took every seminar and read every book I could get my hands on…on the topics of cultural diversity, generational diversity, personality diversity and gender diversity…just to survive team building initiatives and basically learn how to work and play well with my co-workers.

What I learned was that different people speak in different dialects. Semantics has become a really big issue as well as one’s tone of voice. In short, it isn’t only what you say…it is also how you say it.

Many years ago, I attended a spiritual type week long retreat. At this seminar all the attendees would meet in a casual conference room several times a day to debrief after our sessions. To make a long story short, this seminar attracted a very diverse group of people. We had a mix of left brained and right brained folks: physicians, engineers and retired military, mixed with energy healers, intuitives and assorted new age folks. Our debriefing sessions were lively and covered a wide range of approaches and interpretations. We were all in different places along our spiritual journeys and were getting different things out of our experiences at this retreat. The truly fascinating thing about our debriefing sessions was that there was a voice for everyone. When someone had a question or observation…that seemed way off track for me…or way out in left field…another attendee would provide the perfect sound bite to facilitate the individual along his/her spiritual journey.

What I learned was how not to be a spiritual snob. There are diversity and semantics issues to respect when it comes to personal and spiritual growth. What might seem like a boring speaker or uninspired book to me…may provide the necessary spark for another. By the same token, what may be a truly inspiring book or speaker to me…may bore the living daylights out of someone else.

One size does not fit all.

Time and time again, I have read, what I thought, was a truly inspiring book and purchased multiple copies to give as gifts to my friends and family…only for the books to start collecting dust on my friend's book shelves...or for my dear friends to read it and give me a polite, “that was interesting” after the fact.

Similarly, I have waded through really dry and uninspired reads only to find a really good friend of mine felt that the writer was the most important find since the discovery that the world was not flat.

I have been challenged and truly humbled from time to time when I cannot seem to find the right combination of words to help a friend or co-worker through a tough time. Of course, it isn’t my responsibility to counsel folks along their spiritual paths. The universe always finds a way to get the message through. Sure enough, my friend or family member who is struggling through a tough time stumbles onto a book or sound bite on a TV or radio show that provides the needed clarity to get through the day.

It is all in the semantics. There is a voice out there for everyone.

One size does not fit all.