Mosaics have been widely regarded as some of the most intricate and beautiful art pieces. Dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE, they were discovered in a temple in Mesopotamia (today known as Iraq). Mosaics come to life through various materials—clay, tile, glass, stone—which come in many different colors, shapes, and sizes. When all of these pieces mesh together, they form one piece of magical art: one single piece made up of many pieces. Like mosaic artwork, humanity is a living mosaic…and the millions of pieces are us. You and me. Us and them.
Each piece holds stories of hardship and heartbreak… Unspeakable loss, pain, and suffering. Our never enough-ness and our grief… But each piece also contains stories of childlike joy… Of trying something new for the first time and cringing with embarrassment… And all of the ways we have fallen in love over and over again—with the world around us, ourselves, and others.
However, despite our shared humanity and connecting through these experiences, we lose sight of the grand piece of art we all happen to be a part of. We lose sight of the beauty in the whole, and we fixate on our differences, our disagreements.
We try to remove and erase the pieces that do not fit our perception of the whole because somehow our perception is the one correct perception. We choose separation over coming together.
We perceive ourselves and everyone around us through labels and ideas—instead of seeing them and us for our character and who we are. We find reasons to keep our distance from specific people in our beautiful mosaic, and we do not put in an honest effort to genuinely understand them. We begin to see “them” as inherently less than our tribe and us.
We use specific language to define our in-groups and out-groups—as we fail to realize that they are us and we are them: we are all different, yet we are all the same.
We become detached and feel justified in our hate… and in the most extreme manifestation of this separation, we murder our neighbors.
Instead of settling for separation, how can we rediscover Oneness?
How can we find our way back to beauty?
How can we find our way back to each other?
At Mosaic Meaning, we honor curiosity as the path to deeper union with the self and the world around us. We are committed to honest self-reflection in pursuit of enhancing our collective existence.
After all, everything begins within.
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