Love Your Enemies? Yeah Right...

If you can forgive the people you love for their transgressions, then why not your enemies? If you can see beyond the mistakes of people who affect your life, why not forgive those who don’t? See them in their best light, pray for their highest and best good and let them go. If the people who you claim are your enemies aren’t interacting with you on a daily basis, then why are you giving them room in your head?

If you let go of the past, and move into what today is bringing you, all that wasted energy and all that thought which has been tied up in hurt, anger, frustration, guilt and pain…will simply vanish. As easy as it came, so shall it go. But it’s our ego, our need to hold on to the past that feeds the need to keep grading our hearts across the sharp edges of discontent. If you keep judging people according to their past, then where does that leave us in the future, or today?

Mistakes are made; moments are splayed across the memories of the righteous ones. All who are too willing and ready to ignite the spark to their enemies fodder and watch them burn. But what if you decided to drop the match? What if, for that millisecond before you so selfishly put the match to your enemy’s transgressions, you simply blew it out? What if you lay down your weapon and took up your enemy’s cause?

We all want to be loved, listened to, understood, and valued. We all want to start the day born new, unshackled from our past mistakes and wrong doings. Today, be the person who sees beyond the judgmental moments carried on by the conditioned thinkers. Be the person you want the world to celebrate, honor, and love. Be the one who forgives people who have done you wrong. I’m not saying you have to forget or not learn from the pain, but just like a wound that eventually heals and doesn’t hurt anymore, so will be the past misbehavior of your enemies. Eventually you will stop seeing the wound for the pain, but for the lesson that it gave you. Gandhi says, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I say…recognize the change you already are. Wake up and become conscious of the person you already are and live from that space in your intentions. Live from that untouched space where everything is made new. Where the crooked is made straight and the wicked is forgiven.

I want to leave you with one of the most powerful quotes that still bring me to tears when I read it.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson Return to Love.

So my dear friends, what choice are you going to make today…are you going to continue to shrink in the shadows of discontent, or are you going to grow in the light of self discovery and love. The choice is yours…make it count!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings….

Love,
Gretchen

Wha' You Lookin' at?

If you could take a weekend and look at everything that means anything to you…what do you think you’d find? Do you think you’d learn who you truly are? Would you listen to that inner doubting voice that tells you to let the world dictate your experience? Or would you try and find your peace? Would you let other people define who you are? Or would you discover for yourself? If I could tell you the answer to these questions…people would be lining up in droves, throwing Benjamins my way, while waiting for some magical answer to the problems that keep plaguing all of our lives.

I am a writer, and in being a writer; I thoughtfully and methodically pour over words for months, even years sculpturing fantasies for my readers. I pray for the slight chance that I’ve created a world that they can’t wait to escape into. However; making readers fall in love with characters that only exist in my head produces a very delicate vulnerability within me.

I’ll be the first to admit, as I let the hammer of insecurity slam against the thin bones of my self-doubt, I can feel them begin to shatter in the moments of real desperation as I dance on the thin line of who I think I should be and who I truly am.

When did I, as a writer, decide to pander to the dispassionate and unbelievers? Was it the instant I decided to believe in a reality that exists only outside of myself? 

I totally get it….I totally understand you wanna get yours, just as I wanna get mine. But if getting mine inhibits you from getting yours; would the empty trophies of triumph I collect really be worth it? Or would the sting of words, not meant to be uttered, taint the well of harmony within the writing community I so dearly love?

If I’d only take a splinter of time to recognize the grandeur of moments shared between a smile and a look…even the words I’ve shared across a table…maybe, just maybe my life would be different. Is it fair of me to take the life changing moment from someone simply because they don’t understand what I do? Is it inconsequential to share that sacred place within me as I peel back the scars from words so thoughtlessly thrown against my thin skin? Maybe.

But what if…just what if, I took all those moments of weakness, and the vulnerable split second decisions that thunder so violently through my thoughts and shift the burden of misunderstanding to the weight of having faith in something greater?

It isn’t the thoughts that sail in and out of my intellect that power my experience, it’s the ones that decided to set up neighborhoods in my mind that begin to take hold and shape my life.

I think it is time to become aware of my thinking, because what I think becomes what I experience (no matter what). So maybe it’s time to check out what neighborhoods I keep building and rebuilding in my mind.

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings! 

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