Land Mines

Typically there's a minefield occupying a small segment of a person's mental playscape. Sometimes, people put up clear warning signs and build fences. You know it's probably best to respect those boundaries. Of course, sometimes people aren't so great at fencing off those dangerous fields. They might not know how, or even know they’re there.

For now, let’s get back to the people who put up clear fences.

Every so often, whether through love or ego, someone sees the fenced-in minefield and chooses to sneak between the chain links and enters the field. Mostly, when this is done in an act of love, the intruder manages to tiptoe around the mines. They come to know the forbidden mental plain without setting off the mines, and they almost always come back from the experience unharmed.

Those driven by ego don’t know you’re mental playscape as well as they believe they do. This makes them feel entitled to the area beyond the fence and sometimes offended by the barrier. So, when they sneak under the chain link, they blunder through the field, setting off the explosion as they go. Usually, this results in that person coming back feeling hurt and often betrayed.  This person wasn’t being malicious. They were only unthinking and careless.

It’s important to note that sometimes those entering the field in love (typically close friends and family) will intentionally set off the mines. Ideally, with your permission first. They do this because the land mines, left alone over time, become poisonous to us, and begin to spread to other areas of the mental playscape, and by detonating them, we make room for more good, life-giving fields to grow.

But, this is a painful process so we hesitate to do it ourselves.  That’s why these friends enter with love. They throw pebbles. They are familiar enough with the field to know exactly where the mines are hiding. The explosion often triggers all the other mines nearby.

You will feel wounded for a time, but lighter. You’ll know the friend who entered with love because they will be hurt too, but they will stay by your side so you can bare the transformation together.