*What is ‘The Relationship Creature’?
Let me begin by saying that my work is based on the belief that all things in life are connected and brought together through relationship. Whether we are talking about people, heart cells, trees, planets, subatomic particles or the connection we have with our pet rocks, everything in our universe is understood within the context of relationship—nothing is truly isolated.
In other words, I see relationships not only as personal entities between the people we love, I also see them as the glue that connects people ~ animate beings and inanimate objects
Now to the creature, we have all heard the saying that the whole is larger than the sum of its parts. If that’s true, than it would make sense that two dancers would create a more dynamic dance if they danced together, than if they danced apart on the same stage. It is in that togetherness that the magic of the dance occurs. It would also make sense that if we chopped wood we would likely chop more if we had a partner chopping along with us, than if we each chopped alone and later combined the wood.
Most of us have experienced this extra energy, which is created when we do something with another person. It feels bigger and at times feels like it has a life of its own. Yet, we rarely stop to think about it.
That extra energy is the relationship creature.
Another way to think of relationships is to see them as children. Children contain DNA from both parents – yet they are not their parents. They are entities unto themselves. They are both a part of their parents as they contain within them their parental emotional and physical influences and apart from their parents, as they are independent human beings.
The relationship is like a host who embraces whoever is joined with it. It cannot exist without its guests and conversely they cannot have a relationship without it. The relationship is fed by the participation of the people within it or is starved by lack of it; thus it either grows or dies.
The World Wide Web is a great example of a relationship creature gone wild. Once people discovered how to participate with it, it grew far beyond what people imagined at its inception. It is now a staple for information in many of our homes.
Beyond a concept the relationship creature is also a philosophy—it is a way of looking and being with life. The Philosophy invites us to regard relationships as vessels that give us back what we put into them. In other words, if we put anger, disappointments and unfulfilled expectations into the relationship, then we will receive anger, disappointment and unfulfilled expectation in return. Conversely, when we put understanding, compassion and forgiveness into our relationships then understanding, compassion and forgiveness is what we will receive and experience.
In being aware and attuned to the relationships of our lives we can begin hearing and acting on what may be best for ourselves and everyone attached to the relationship, rather than who is loudest. Learning to be attuned or empathic to the creature is, I believe, how we can move toward more cooperative relationships both within ourselves and our external world.
There is so much to say about the relationship creature…but for now I will end here and will continue talking about her further in my blog.
*The concept of the Relationship Creature belongs to one of my teachers “The Story Teller” who has encouraged and inspired me to write about it and distribute the information.
The Relationship Creature 