When YOU discover that you can love them regardless of what they are doing, you've got it all figured out. When you can stand in love of those who are not loving you, you have it all figured out.
Washington, DC 10-24-09
It's a joyful thing to look at someone, who demonstrates qualities I can either identify with, admire, and even love and stay in this easy place of appreciation. It's those "others," who test my resolve, challenge my perspective, who do things so differently than how I would do something, or believe so differently than me, that if I give them enough of my attention, I can find myself standing in a place of judging them - making them wrong - defending and justifying myself...even if that was never my intention.
But, what a juicy and life-giving feeling it is to be able appreciate those differences, to find the blessing in another's perspective that's very different than my own. It's not about gaining tolerance of something I'm not wanting, but instead the process of Allowing. Allowing myself to remember Who I Am and that I always had control over the one thing I only ever had control over: Me. In that allowing, the light of who I am shines on all those whom I interact and I cannot help but see who they really are. Isn't that what unconditional love is, after all? Not asking others to change at all, but loving myself so much I recognize myself within them.
