This is what we have to do for ourselves. This is what we can feel Love itself doing for us.
Last night, I dreamed about an aggressive little boy, crawling all over where he wasn’t supposed to be, swearing. I was able to hold him on my lap, and he pulled his knees up to his chest in a little ball, and I just poured delighted love all over him and around him. He felt safe and loved and started to tell me how he felt - and I reflected his feelings back to him, with compassion and understanding. His emotional anguish melted away.
This is what we have to do for ourselves. This is what we can feel Love itself doing for us.
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Our Maker gives us strength, courage, and clarity. Energy pulses through us. Like a child recognizes the voice of its parent, so we hear and recognize the voice of Love and Strength and Wisdom speaking, cutting through the clatter and confusion. Know that you have full ability to hear. Today Love, your Maker, delights in you. Delights in your humor, your creativity, your good intentions, your big heart, the uniqueness that is you. Be bathed in that delight. Accept it. Feel the joy of it. Feel it accompanying you today.
Today, you know what you need to do. If you think you are not sure. Close your eyes, listen, and remind yourself that you already know. Deep wisdom and clarity - and Wisdom itself - speaks inside you. It does not take complex digging or sorting. It just takes acknowledging that you already know and trusting the answer, whether it's challenging or gentle.
Today, practice letting go into Love - and knowing that your ability to do this comes from Love itself. Feel Love wrapping your thoughts, your body, your purpose, your relationships, the causes about which you are most passionate, your work, your home. Today, care less about problem solving and more about resting in the active presence of powerful, embracing Love.
Integrity is a power, a living force moving in us and through us. Integrity asks us (and gives us the ability) to treat ourselves with love and distinguish self-abuse from discipline and responsibility. Integrity recognizes when we are being mistreated by others — and cannot be manipulated. Integrity is not grandiose; integrity also does not let us belittle our talents and contributions.
Yesterday I was in a group where several people who I think of as wise and mature surprised me by confessing recent moments in which they wanted to get affirmation or “brownie points” from people in authority. That made me feel more gentle about that part of me - which had been making me feel ashamed - that also wants to be affirmed as a good student or employee, a particularly wise, intuitive, insightful friend or teacher, etc.”
We are conditioned when we are very young to want to please our families and teachers; that’s part of the way little humans are designed to grow and absorb the cultural values. So we don’t have to beat ourselves up for that tendency. We can recognize it’s a strong, ingrained force and not take it as a sign of personal weakness. Instead, we recognize and maybe feel amused by it, hold it lightly, and to the degree we can, let it go, with affection and without judgment. Today, do everything with just a little more kindness. Treat your body with a little more kindness. Speak to yourself with a little more kindness. Speak to others with a little more kindness. Accept kindnesses offered you. When you have to make a choice on how to approach a problem or obstacle, choose the kind way. Soften your judgements of yourself and others. Feel the kindness of Kindness embracing you.
Today, lean into Love, as a hug. Let go into Love. Rest in Love. Breathe into Love. Feel Love as a healing balm that soothes any pain in you, physically or emotionally. Pause throughout today to feel that warm, welcoming, healing presence of Love that touches every part of your being. You don’t need to think or reason your way into Love - just pause, yield, receive your hug.
A few friends and I have been talking about how we each have different gifts to give during this challenging time. We can respect our own strengths and natural ways of contributing. What matters is that we are united in our values of justice and care.
And if we are feeling a need to feel more centered and peaceful in ourselves, that is also a gift to the world. Wayne Muller writes in his book How, Then, Shall We Live?: "There are times when our offering is not necessarily some tangible gift or helpful act, but simply a peaceful manner. If we are clear and present, if we are quiet and centered, then others may be nourished simply by our lack of agitation. The world is so agitated that to be in the presence of a single person who is at peace can feel remarkably healing, a great blessing. If we are still, others will come when they need to remember who they are.” |
AuthorTarn Wilson is the author of the memoir The Slow Farm and numerous essays. You may read more of her work at tarnwilson.com. Archives
September 2020
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