Intense love does not measure, it just gives.
Mother Teresa
It used to bother me as a little girl when someone was angry with me or if someone in school did not like me. I would approach the person whenever I could, determined to make them like me or try to figure out what I had done. It was as if I could not be at peace until I figured it out. But greater still, was the feeling of overwhelming love that canceled out any fear or awkwardness to approach them. As a child, I did not wonder if my actions were appropriate or if I may be crossing over a line. It just felt right, and it felt wrong not to do something about it.
Over the years, the scales that cover the eyes, the wounds that callous the heart, and the mind that is preoccupied with judgments, opinions, and a myriad of other cloaks that supposedly self preserve unknowingly create a chasm between the innocent child and the overanalyzing adult. Time wears down the bridge between the two a pebble at a time, and a hurt at a time, until the love, still there, ebbs and flows rather than the bright light that once burned in our hearts towards actions we need not have thought twice about. Fortunately, surrounding us in every moment, there are the reminders that the two are still connected.
It is not easy when someone’s words have hurt us, or actions have angered us to the point that we “cut them off” or immediately begin to question the “agendas” of everyone around us. Needless to say, we can find ourselves gradually and eventually behind these bars of suspicion or worse yet, walking a barren land devoid of relationships, no longer willing to try. This is when we must realize we have a choice, to continue to walk through the repetitive and energy draining bitterness or to rise above the sea of life and all that flows within it from a perspective of love.
When I would come home from school crying from an unkind word, or even in later years angry over a situation, my mother would always tell me, “You have to rise above.” The words fell on deaf ears for many years, until finally the meaning took root. It doesn’t matter what the other person is doing or what the circumstance is, it is the power in our hearts to overcome that is important. We always have that choice. While not always easy, the light that we find, and continue to hold out in front of us becomes brighter and brighter the more we let it burn. Eventually, the scales fall, the wounds heal, the mind rests, and we find our way back over the bridge with a childlike joy and an eagerness to love.
Visit BRIDGES this week for an article by John O’Leary, https://chasingtheperfectmoment.com/bridges/
