The “Gestalt Prayer”
“I do my thing, and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful. If not, it can’t be helped.”
The saying of one of the Hasidic masters, Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk, is written from a slightly different point of view:
“If I am I because you are you,
and you are you because I am I,
then you are not you, and I am not I.
But if I am I because I am I,
and you are you because you are you,
then I am I, and you are you, and we can talk.