When we take time to actually understand people, our lives will change. There seems to be a theme in many of my friends’ lives recently, where they will complain about someone and make them wrong for what they are thinking or how they are feeling.
Let me tell it to you straight – YOUR EMOTIONS ARE VALID AND REAL! Don’t let ANYONE tell you otherwise!
When we begin to have respect for the thoughts of others and cherish the feelings of others as we do our own, we step into a larger and more beautiful world. Think about it. If you made a list of all your character defects and saw those parts of yourself loud and clear, would you say that even though you know you are that way, you let yourself off the hook? Well then, let us see others with Love and compassion and let them off the hook too!
This doesn’t mean we have to tolerate abuse or anything like that, but it does mean that we can choose to see and encourage the best in others. And when we do that, a strange thing starts to happen – the best of who they are begins to emerge.
If we are constantly looking for what’s wrong, if we are constantly trying to see how someone messed up, we miss the miracle and we miss the blessing that is his or her presence in our life.
So when it comes to other people, I have a question, and I want you to answer honestly… What are you looking for in them? Are you looking for what’s right? Are you seeing them as doing the best that they can? Are you having compassion for them at the same level that you do for yourself or those you Love?
AND – if you feel that other people are only looking for what’s wrong in you, can you send them Love and Compassion because you know that this is nothing but a projection of how they feel about themselves and has NOTHING to do with you? This is how we are being called to see the world – with the eyes of Love. We must see the innocence; see the pain of others and we must not take it personally because we know it is just a part of their projection. We must do our best to stop projecting onto others and to send only Love instead. Sometimes you might have to send Love from a distance, but send Love anyway!
Do you have the courage to see life this way? Can you let go of the past hurts and step into the brand-newness of this now moment? Can you feel the Love within you that is dying to be expressed and know that when it is expressed it will be returned to you 100-fold?
This is the way of things – do you have what it takes?
…Ifeoma iloh
