Out of Hiding
We are marketed a happy life. A happy life that looks and feels just so. A happy life that may contain some reality, and some fantasy. A happy life that we may all be addicted in chasing. The happy life is and feels good, indeed! And, there is also sadness. There is also disappointment. There is also loss in life. Happy and Sad. Yang and Yin. Always both. Always. One does not exist without the other.
So, how do we make room for and allow our sadness, our grief, without shame? How do we greet each other’s eyes with a compassionate honoring while one is in the midst of struggle? A greeting that says, “I see you, all of you, and you’re okay.”
An acknowledgement from my heart to yours.
“The divine in me see the divine in you.” “I see you and yours.” “Affection, peace, compassion and mercy.”
How do we look and listen from this heart space when our outer lives are inundated with messages of “not good enough,” comparisons and judgments? Inundated with “Be the best,” fix-its and cover-ups.
We practice.
We practice first on ourselves. With our reflection, into our own eyes, fully open, we see, we willingly see it all, all that is in our souls, the joy, the struggle, the worry, the hope. We look and acknowledge, pay respect to our journey within through all of the years. And we say, with meaning behind it, listening intently, “Namaste.” We say, “I Ni Che.” We say, “I love you. All of you. This may have been a long time coming, and I tell you this now with all of my heart, I love you. Aloha.”
Practice, practice, practice.
Letting it sink in more deeply each time. Letting it touch the core of ourselves and our hearts… weeping in its bath of affection, because it feels so good to be loved and we’ve waited so long to feel it, unconditionally, like this.
Looking to our hearts, “I love you!”
Loving ourselves is the first step to seeing and accepting others, in all of their states of being. And we’ve all been there, in the struggle, in the worry, in the angst, and the joy. Let’s be honest.
May we take us all out of hiding, with love. Namaste.
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to living sensual! xo Piper
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* A heartfelt greeting in Bambara, the local language of Mali in West Africa; shared by Lara Feltin, founder of MyFive and Biznik, in her presentation to the Women's Business Exchange last week on the importance of nurturing relationships in social media. ..