Loving Kindness

Months ago I was in the presence of someone who was not very kind.  The harder I tried to show kindness, compassion and love, the more I was rejected with criticism, sarcasm, and bigotry.  I consider myself a level-headed woman.  I realized it wasn’t about me.  It was a projection.  But, in that projection I stepped back several times and asked myself, “Do I also have these traits inside?  Am I often quick to judge and not understand?  In that moment of not being understood, am I fake in my truth?”  It is amazing the things we gather when we stop and question.One of the most difficult and generous lessons I am learning is that there is no substitute for being present and paying attention.  Kindness comes natural to me.  Love pours out with such easiness at times that those around me must remind me to hold back and not be so trustworthy.  I don’t care.  I rather have loved and hurt than not show someone a little piece of light in hope.  Love is hope.  Love is acceptance.  I am sure every one of you reading can add a million adjectives to what love carries in and out of the spirit.This particular person strengthened me, once I recaptured the rejection, by reminding me of hurt.  Those who are broken from the past will lash out to the light in others.  Darkness always tries to resist light at first.  To make the moment with this woman even more intolerable I kept trying to touch her.  At the end of the few days of being in my presence she did hug me with such regret, not from her humanness-ego-filled body, but from her spirit yearning to be held.  In that moment I saw her…her real self made of love.Kindness is such a powerful tool.  It is free.  Everyone has stories that mold them.  The secret is to realize that these stories need release.  Not every single human being will hurt you.  We were not created to live in oppression, negativity, and carrying bags of turmoil.  Let’s drop the dirty laundry, folks!  It is time to take the junk to the dumpster.  We cannot continue to hurt others because of feeling ashamed, unworthy while punishing our spirits for the past.  The older I get, the less I carry around.  I am no saint.  I have done my share of sinful crap.  These are the milestones that have sustained my weight to get here.  What you do today is a new stone making way in the future.  Don’t hold resentments and anger for things you cannot change.  Challenge yourself to create a new beginning full of love, forgiveness, hope, grace and kindness.  How you treat someone speaks volumes about you and them!  I could’ve treated this woman with the same anger and hatred.  I chose to hold love in her presence.  And, guess what?  After a weekend that woman was different.  She didn’t know what hit her.  We all have wounded parts. Some days we are the saints, and some days we are the sinners.  Don’t take things personally.  Learn from them and move on.  Love is the Divine wrapped in wings of forgiveness and grace!“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” ~ Mark Twain