What's Not to Love?

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I was just reminded of a quote from an article by spiritual teacher John Morton:      “What's the test here on this earth? Loving it all. As soon as you don't love something, that's when you get miserable.”  I resonate with that. I believe that. I even proclaim that.

Yet it’s so easy, so tempting, so “normal” to respond “Yeah, but this really sucks. This is wrong. This is unlovable.” I know. That’s been my response many, many times. Even recently I found myself in utter, fuming, tearful outraged resistance to a particular form of What Is. Miserable? You bet I was.

I thought I had learned the love-it-all lesson through dealing with pain (see blog June 13, 2012) . But you know how life is: the lessons just keep coming back in different disguises until you finally get them, not just as a proclamation, but as a living reality. So of course, this one just sneaked up on me and said “Oh yeah? Well let’s see you love this one!”

Thank God. I mean that literally: Thank you, God (or spirit, or my higher self, or angels or twinkling stars or whatever you like to call It). I needed that lesson. Again. There’s more for me to love…and I’m still getting there.

This time, when I finally gave up my hope/dream/demand that What Is would magically become What Isn’t, I sat down and wrote out every aspect of What Is that I didn’t like, didn’t want to accept. I wrote it as sentences, each one starting with acceptance.  Then I took a good long look inside, asking myself how that icky ugga-bugga (IUB) was a reflection of me: how am I like that? Then I asked myself what part of me is so unwhole that it can’t stay at peace, in loving in the presence of that IUB? And then I forgave myself, including forgiving myself for judging my own IUB, and for judging the IUB out there in the world. Here’s how it looked:

  • I am accepting that ____(the IUB)____ is What Is, and may not change.
  • I am loving and accepting the part of me that also ____(how I manifest the IUB myself) ____.
  • I am loving and accepting the part of me that ____(gets hurt, is fearful, feels rejected, unlovable, unworthy etc.)____.
  • I forgive myself for judging ____(myself, the other, the IUB) ____ as  ________.   [Repeat this for each judgment.]

Can you guess what happened? Peace. Acceptance. A willingness to work with What Is. And pretty soon, along came gratitude – gratitude that the IUB came along in the first place, to show me where I’m not loving, not at peace, not who I like to think I am…so that I could return to wholeness and peace.

Love it all?

Sure. What’s not to love?

Healing, Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, SpiritualityMartha Boston2 Comments