As You Are

I was challenged today in ways I never expected. Sure it began normal, but my own inner struggles destroyed what would have been a great day and made it unbearably hard. Then, I saw something on Facebook that just struck me, and I wanted to do the same for any of my readers that are having a bad day, like I did. So, here it goes...Don't know who out there needs this, but whoever you are, this post is for you.

Sometimes it's hard to imagine someone as fabulous and wonderful as you, can feel utterly depleted and tired. Wasted and even depressed. Things can be going great all day and suddenly there is that pesky gloom and doom inside your head again. Maybe, you just saw an otherwise innocuous picture and it triggered a land slide of sorrows that you thought you already dealt with. Perhaps, you were fine, dandy even, then "that" person messages or called. It could be that you just suddenly felt useless and that all your efforts had been wasted on meaningless things or people. Or, maybe you just can't put your finger on it, but you're upset. Feeling downtrodden. Exhausted; at the end of your rope and ready to tie a knot, but not to hang on. You know what I mean. And do you know what else I know?...this post is for you. 

This post is for you; for you to know that no matter where you've come from, regardless of what you've dealt and are dealing with, and despite your failures and mistakes...you are loved. You may stop me here and get emotional or even tune me out; how can I know without knowing you? Who am I, that I can say someone loves you...what right do I have to speak to you?bor, I just don't know how bad you are, once I did I would understand that no one could love you. 

Well, it may seem or be hard to accept, impossible maybe to believe. But without meeting you, without knowing your color, your country, your religion, or your preferences...I love you. I may not have seen your face, but I know what you face. All that anxiety and depression, that hurt and pain, that fear and weight, I carry it too. And I love you for carrying it with me. Through the bonds of common suffering and the comradery that it builds, I've gotten to know you. And that dread, regret, and terror you can't seem to escape no matter how hard, how fast, or how much you try...I am trying to escape it too.

So don't do anything for the next ten second, ten minutes, or ten hours; whatever it takes to settle the turmoil you're feeling. Just remember you are loved. And I may go so far as to say you are loved by many more people than you know or believe. I am one of them. So don't give up. Don't ever, ever give up. 

Heart to Heal

A wise man once compared love to a thrashing floor where the hard shell around your heart is beaten until the sheath breaks away. No matter how many layers you've been through, love finds new ways to reform you each and every day. Whether it's a new crack appearing in the tough husk you didn't think you had or the chaff separating for the first time and you're trying desperately to breathe after the shock...love will reform you with each breath if you let it. 

It's not wrong to feel threatened by the change, it's your choice to allow it, but until you've touched the pain you won't have any knowledge of the joys gained with the growth in your life when you allow it. Emotions are frightening, the thought of a heart being taken to the thrashing floor of love sounds immensely painful, but life cannot have love without feelings. And pain is one of them.

To be hurt by loving could mean a number of things. It could be a dream you must let go, a trial in your relationship, a mutual loss, a betrayal, a falling away, a falling out...it could be anything you're afraid of or that one thing you overlooked...regardless of what it is, if you love it will hurt. 

But if there is one thing we can take comfort in, it's the fact that we are only human. We don't have to carry the burden of diety and angels, we can experience life as we were born into this world: human. Without unfairly judging eachother for struggles or holding a double standard. Humanity means we all have emotions and feelings, no matter how we try and deny them and to understand the emotions and feelings of others leaves our lives perhaps in more pain but richer for it. Perhaps in more confusion but deeper loved for it. No matter your situation in life; your religion; your personal struggles; or your personal achievements; never become so logical that you forget how to feel or so bitter that you can't touch the heart of others with compassion. 

The Prophet: Kahlil Gibran

On love- 

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden. 

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. 

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. 

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. 

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love. 

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. 

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.