Uncategorized – Page 718

Peace …

The only way to be happy is to be true to myself. The only way to be unhappy is to be untrue to myself. So, I can trace any discontent back to a betrayal of my truth … and realign.… More

Dear Friends … I’m learning to shut up

Dear Friends,

Lately, I’ve been learning to keep my mouth shut more. In elementary school, I remember “talks too much” on my report card. And here I am more than fifty years later!

I catch myself responding to be polite or to express some bit of knowledge or experience. I want to stop making it about me and just say enough so that the other person knows I heard him.

Sometimes the best way to do that is to keep my mouth shut! Most of communication is nonverbal. I can make eye contact, nod, smile, pat somebody on the shoulder, sit still and be silent, even reverent.

Sometimes I do.

Life is the ultimate teacher of love, and that includes knowing when to open my mouth and when to keep it shut.

Forever a student of love,… More

Naked … the only way to be in love

The relationship you want can only be had through hard work on yourself … and that’s the work we do our best to avoid. It’s much easier to shell out money. Americans spend 35 billion dollars a year on unproven diet products because they find it too difficult to eat less.

And eating less is easy compared to getting naked. We’re scared to death to strip away the family, the house, the degree, the job, the kids. We’ve defined ourselves by appearance, grades, athletic ability, good behavior or rebellion as far back as we can remember. You’re not alone if you’re thinking, “Who would I be without all that?” Most of us don’t know.

Strip away what can be quantified, seen or touched, and you have your authentic self. You have that for which you want to be known and loved.

Yes, you want somebody to love every little toe and sweet spot, but you also want them to love what you’re afraid to show and talk about. You want them to know that you were the last one picked for softball, that you had a speech impediment until you were 9 and that kids used to call you chubby knees.… More

Love is always enough, but we can displace love with fear …

Love is always enough in the present. There is no lack of time, money, or other resources unless we begin to lament the past or worry about the future. And when we get scared, we displace love with fear.

When we remain fearless, we remain loving! We make the best of what we have. And we grow more. … More

Love is not provoked …

When we are provoked, our partners and most humans seem unsatisfactory. When we’re looking for flaws or scapegoats, we’re surrounded. Anything that’s different from the ideal we’ve conjured up can be an excuse to cringe or attack.

When we’re not interested in resolving the differences, they seem insurmountable. We’d rather be right than validate somebody else’s view or reach a compromise (that’s the last thing we want).

As long as somebody else is wrong, we have grounds for dislike. We have an argument to stand on, maybe even a principle to defend, by God.

But when we open up to love, love moves the spotlight from our differences to our sameness. And our differences can seem insignificant … mostly because they are.

When we’re open to resolution, to a win-win, it can be easy to find one.

So, how do we avoid getting provoked? And how do we open up to resolution once we are?

We open up to love. We choose to feel love. We choose to feed love.… More

Meet the challenge with love …

How can the challenge you face be too big when the reward is commensurate?

That question reminds us that we can do it, that we want to do it … and that, if we are to be true to our greatness, we MUST do it.… More