In my personal, spiritual work these days I’m paying a lot of attention to Love.  Those of you who read BECOMING may remember I have had a hard time with the concept and practice of love — not knowing how and where and whether I really experience it.  Love seemed so grand, and I felt so small. Love seemed so perfect, and I anything but. Currently I’m tackling some of my obsessive eating habits, (more about this later, maybe), and I’m really getting it that if I don’t love myself as I am, right here, now, I don’t have a chance of change.

Extremely helpful on this journey in a rich and earthy way, has been a quote by writer Courtney A. Walsh:

“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.”
 It’s not a new message, but Courtney’s version is so very earthy and encouraging, and inviting.
So what’s right now?  Right now I am feeling a warmth in my heart thinking about all of you, gratitude for the cozy, foggy day, the candles burning on the coffee table, the twinkly lights in the window, the music in my life; I notice some guilt, but also compassion, for my countless culinary transgressions, and some pleasure and pride that I am tackling them;  and I feel some compassion toward all my standing ups and falling downs.
And how about you?  What’s are you experiencing this very moment!
I’d love to hear!

Jill Schroder is the author of BECOMING: Journeying Toward Authenticity.  BECOMING is an invitation for self-reflection, and to mine our memorable moments for insights, meaning, andgrowth.  Check the website for a sample chapter, or see the reviews to get a flavor for the volume.  Follow me on Twitter, let’s be friends on Facebook :-)

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