LOVE MONTH: DAY 6: “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
This is the perfect quote for me today. I am about 3 years into the practice of thanking those things that do not feel good in my life for their presence and teaching. This has been a big part of my current and ongoing gratitude practice. What a gift!
Not only does awareness come with long-term practice of these principles, but they deepen to a degree that I only hoped for when it all began.
This one was first begun in the early days, because I would be asked to speak at a meeting and I would always open my share with “I want to thank all of you assholes for the ongoing mirror of who I am when I really believe it is YOUR shit.”
That was true, as far as it went; but it needed to be a more loving gift you gave to me. I don’t want to be pissy and resentful any more. I was going through such a brutal shift in my life and circumstances a couple of years ago that I really needed to shift, yet again, into a deeper practice of gratitude and peace with my life.
This, even after my husband died and I then lost everything that I had worked my whole life to achieve, financially. Those were big acceptances, but I did not feel victimized, because I had enough recovery to see that I was not alone, nor was it personal.
Today it is more about my belief in who I am and what I am. This is an everlasting part of my practice, as I believe it is for everyone. We all have attachments to let go of; images to destroy, and egos that need another good deflation if we are to live with love and from the heart.
So, I continue to infuse love and gratitude into those things about life that I am less than thrilled with and I receive their gifts. This used to take a lot longer to achieve; and I often had to work through resentments and some whiney shit before I got to the other side.
This current time practice has been much faster and less intensive. I can see what I do not like about life and it has become okay and then perfect. Wow!
And the dragons I deal with are not princesses, but I am! And I can see behind the curtain of my ego where the monsters are created from things that I don’t want to accept into my life. Nothing changes until I can transmute the feelings I have attached to it. That is the lesson, again and again and again and again.
I love all of this! Life is so interesting and full of beautiful gifts and some of them are dressed like the boogey man…but I am not afraid…that is the most beautiful gift of all!
Life is life…it gets to be whatever you decide. You can make it heaven or hell. We all know that from the times when it was only hell. The grace we received was completely that…grace…we did nothing to deserve or earn it, that is what grace is all about.
And life loves a lover. The more grateful I am, the happier I am. When I love my life, I get to be free from fighting it to being happy in it. What a great deal! I don’t want to ever, ever, miss another minute of my life being in the fight…I only want to focus on the love…I have been unloving and unlovable for far too long!
Dolphin Hug 