An open gate is an invite to enter, a closed gate is a bar and is forbidding, but a broken gate often leaves us wondering what to do. The try to enter raises the fear that one may further damage it or be hurt by it, but to walk on by denies many possibilities.

Consider the people we meet. There are those who we take to, they become acquaintances or occasionally friends. We like what we see and hear when we meet them, their aura resonates with us, and when we touch them the images and feelings that we receive please us - they usually feel the same way about us.
There are those who we do not like, something about them puts us off, their manner, their aura and when we touch them the images and feelings make us draw back - they usually feel the same way about us.
Then there are those who we meet that we have uncertainty about. Often it is the case that something in them feels broken. They are sad or suffering in some way, they have an illness or have difficulty connecting with others, introspective and very often just afraid. Their aura makes little sense and is disturbed and if and when we touch them we get feelings that are unsettling, and images that we find difficult to deal with.

The initial action more often than not is to retreat, we fear that they are contagious, that their problems will transfer to us by the simple action of contact. We worry that involvement may bring us down, it makes us nauseous and we fear that we will be either contaminated or be sucked into a spiral of counseling that we do not really want or think we can afford. Their broken nature actually assists us with this, repelling and warding us off.
So we back off and the broken gate goes unfixed and un-entered.

What a loss of possibilities - you see inside the broken gate lies an opportunity not only for a caring relationship and the chance to help and connect with someone, but the fact that we walk by reflects within us that our own gate is broken, that we exhibit the same forbidding, grim and unwelcoming aspects, and this may just have been something that would allow us to repair our own gate and then leave it open as a friendly invite.

As we walk away from the caring option, leaving our own gate needing repair one final problem arises, and that is how we will react when we see ourselves in the mirror, gate broken, repugnant and full of dismay, a reflection of those things we shun, unable to help ourselves and no-one else around to help.

love
chris