"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image."
~ Thomas Merton
Let's aim to love ourselves and others
as we are, as they are, with no twisting.
If you are pressed for time, stop here. Today's gift is reverence. Go forth with loving acceptance and respect.
Because I'm feeling appreciation and admiration for this monk, this writer/poet/social
activist man - in part because he spent some time teaching at my alma mater (St. Bonaventure University) - I'm wanting to share a few more of his quotes.
If you choose to read them all, notice the one that most stirs a response in you. Let that message be the touchstone you carry today. Let that one spur you toward becoming more fully you.
"The biggest human temptation is
...to settle for too little."
"If a man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit."
"If we want to be spiritual, then let us first of all live our lives."
"There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun."
May we live
and love fully, with passion, purpose, and reverence.
Embracing what is too,
Charlene
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REVERENCE: May you appreciate the wonder that you are and the miracle of all creation. ( -The Twelve Gifts of Birth)
