Whenever I find myself in a difficult situation or experience, I try to ask myself, “What is it about love that I’m not learning?” Sometimes the answer is a bit convoluted and I have to dig around a bit to find it and sometimes it’s looking me in the face.It’s my belief that all we’re really here for is to learn love. The Beatles were right when they sang, “All You Need Is Love” because if you boil everything down—the so-called good and bad lessons—it’s only about love: love for others and love for ourselves. Love covers a multitude of sins and I know from my own experiences that when I apply the love lesson to any given situation, I’m prompted to act from the best part of myself rather than ego or fear. I’m no saint, so it’s not always easy. It’s never easy, in fact, because it’s so easy to act from fear.
We’ve been going through a financial crisis for so long now that I’ve almost come to accept it as our lot in life. Almost. Right behind that defeatist attitude, however, lies the knowledge that it’s only a test, a test that I intend to pass though. When someone offers help, my first reaction is to feel small and embarrassed—a failure—but when I ask myself, “What is it about love that I’m not learning?”, I know that I’m supposed to learn to accept love, to turn off the negative voices and allow people the joy they receive from their selfless actions.
By accepting assistance from others I not only allow them the blessing that giving bestows, I also keep the flow moving so that when it’s my turn I’ll have what it requires to help others. It’s a continuum of energy that sets us up for an ever-expanding dance of giving and receiving. That’s what the adage, “Tis more blessed to give than to receive” means. And isn’t that what life is about anyway? All creatures on this planet benefit from working together for the good of all—it’s only human beings that have distorted that into the I, Me, Mine mentality that plagues and poisons our society; it comes from fear and is the opposite of love.
For those of us who believe in reincarnation and remember our past lives, the lesson is even more wide-spread because we are able to look into the relationships that have traveled with us in and out of lifetimes, find the karmic issues, resolve them, and move on. Perhaps we helped others in a past life and we are only just now receiving the energy, like ripples on a lake caused by a toss of the proverbial pebble, or maybe we’ve been wealthy in a past life and need to learn important lessons about pride. In this light it’s easy to understand how important giving and receiving is to our soul’s evolution.
How can we ever expect to be in a position to help others when we cannot receive or accept help ourselves? Today, accept not only the love that your friends send, send that love to them in return by not stopping the flow that they’ve set up and when you are able, pass that love on to the next person in need.
I think that one of the lessons we are learning too, is to accept that love when it is given freely and to discern when it is not--when it has strings attached and when it is given by someone whose motives are not as pure as we might believe and/or hope them to be. That kind of discernment comes only through experience, both good and bad. We've had both, and now I can say that I'm pretty good at discerning one from the other.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter how the gift is given. The universe doesn't know good energy from bad, it's just energy. What's important is not feeling small or undeserving so that the giver (if they have an ulterior motive) doesn't have power over you.
ReplyDeleteAll that matters is that the universe is giving. It's how we receive that is important.
Beautiful. Inspired by love and the overwhelming sense of euphoria we have when we express or receive it.
ReplyDeleteThis has always been my lesson, too. Accepting help or compliments or gifts has always been hard for me because, like you Steph, my initial reaction is "I don't deserve it; I'm not worthy." But gradually, I learned that by accepting others' gifts to me, I am in turn giving a gift to them. They experience joy in giving. To turn down their gift blocks their giving - and may block the lesson they themselves are trying to learn. I give out of love, out of joy at being able to give, and because others have given to me.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm learning to accept others' giving to me in the same way.
ReplyDeleteNicely put Steph.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Universal Law is the Law of Giving and Receiving.
As soon as I believed that I was worthy of all that life had to offer, I got all that life had to offer.
There's a little exercise that you can do, to see how stagnant your life is and how to break the jam.
Look in your closet.
If it's jam packed, your energy is jam packed too. Nothing new can fit in the closet, the same is true for new energy into your life.
A simple thing to do is clean your closet. Get rid of the old.
It allows you to practice the Universal Law of giving. Then, as Steph so nicely worded in her post, relax and accept the gifts that the Universe provides.
Keep your heart and mind open - gifts will come in the most unusual ways.
Today I wrote a post on my blog about getting rid of the old internal energy. Write your obituary, celebrate your life and then create the life of your dreams.
It's really quite simple to have a life full of happiness and lots of LOVE.
It all begins with you, with a thought.
Thoughts are real and always remember to DREAM BIG!