Love?
Dear Human,
You’ve got it all wrong.
You didn’t come here to master unconditional love.
That is where you came from and where you’ll return.
You came here to learn personal love.
Universal love. Messy love. Sweaty love.
Crazy love. Broken love. Whole love.
Infused with divinity. Lived through the grace of stumbling.
Demonstrated through the beauty of… messing up. Often.
You didn’t come here to be perfect. You already are.
You came here to be gorgeously human. Flawed and fabulous.
And then to rise again into remembering.
But unconditional love? Stop telling that story.
Love, in truth, doesn’t need any other adjectives.
It doesn’t require modifiers.
It doesn’t require the condition of perfection.
It only asks that you show up. And do your best.
That you stay present and feel fully.
That you shine and fly and laugh and cry
and hurt and heal and fall and get back up
and play and work and live and die as YOU.
It’s enough. It’s Plenty.
Courtney A. Walsh
As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering
are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth.
Today, I know, this is AUTHENTICITY.
As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody
as I try to force my desires on this person,
even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it,
and even though this person was me.
Today I call it RESPECT.
As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life,
and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow.
Today I call it MATURITY.
As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance,
I am in the right place at the right time,
and everything happens at the exactly right moment.
So I could be calm.
Today I call it SELF–CONFIDENCE.
As I began to love myself I quit steeling my own time,
and I stopped designing huge projects for the future.
Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness,
things I love to do and that make my heart cheer,
and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm.
Today I call it SIMPLICITY.
As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything
that is no good for my health—food, people, things, situations,
and everything that drew me down and away from myself.
At first I called this attitude a «healthy egoism.»
Today I know it is LOVE OF ONESELF.
As I began to love myself I quit trying to always be right,
and ever since I was wrong less of the time.
Today I discovered that is MODESTY.
As I began to love myself I refused to go on living in the past
and worry about the future.
Now, I only live for the moment, where EVERYTHING is happening.
Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it FULFILLMENT.
As I began to love myself I recognized that my mind can disturb me
and it can make me sick.
But As I connected it to my heart, my mind became a valuable ally.
Today I call this connection WISDOM OF THE HEART.
We no longer need to fear arguments,
confrontations or any kind of problems with ourselves or others.
Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born.
Today I know THAT IS LIFE!
Charlie Chaplin’s speech on his 70th Birthday, April 16, 1959
It is nonsense, says reason.
It is what it is, says love.
It is calamity, says calculation.
It is nothing but pain, says fear.
It is hopeless, says insight.
It is what it is, says love.
It is ludicrous, says pride.
It is foolish, says caution.
It is impossible, says experience.
It is what it is, says love.
Erich Fried
Share this post via