What hurts more? To love with all the messiness or to be scarred by the pain of love and withdraw, isolate… separate?
Self reflection
REFLECTION:
How do you respond to conflict in relationships? Do you engage or withdraw?
Is there a relationship you have withdrawn from because of being hurt? Is it possible to re-engage? How will you do that?
When Akiba was on his deathbed, he bemoaned to his rabbi that he felt he was a failure. His Rabbi moved closer and asked why, and Akiba confessed that he had not lived a life like Moses. The poor man began to cry, admitting that he feared God’s judgment. At this, his Rabbi leaned into his ear and whispered gently, “God will not judge Akiba for not being Moses. God will judge Akiba for not being Akiba.” FROM THE TALMUD
Quote was from a post by Mark Nepo’s from: THE BOOK OF AWAKENING Having The Life You Want By Being Present To The Life You Have
REFLECTION:
Comparison robs us of our joy. Are you trying to live up to the standards of someone else?
How can you live from you most authentic self (BEING)?
What do you need to do to be more you (DOING)?
“Are you searching for your true self? Then come out of your own prison. Leave the little creek and join the mighty river that flows into the ocean. Like an ox, don’t pull the wheel of this world on your back. Take off the burden. Whirl and circle, and rise above the wheel of the world. There is another view.”
Poem by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. (1207-1273)
REFLECTION:
With COVID, our world has been made much smaller. Some would say we are prisoners. IS IT TIME FOR A REFRAME???
Are you in a self inflicted prison?
Are you carrying the world on your back?
What is another view you can embrace?