We thank you now for love, the great, the miraculous
gift. For love in the body that comforts, for love in the
emotional body that delights and frustrates and
instructs, for love of our sacred circle of friends, for
love in the spirit beyond all walls and wounds, bounds
and ends.
Love, we thank you for love, love that stirs and
soothes us, love that gathers us into all joy and delivers
us from all brokenness. Love that hears the soundless
language, love that imagines and dreams, that can
conquer all and willingly surrenders everything. Love
that brought us into our lives and love that will carry us
home.
- Daphne Rose Kingma
(From the hourglass series by Marylou Falstreau)
I think that learning to love myself has been the most difficult love of all.
In the generation of my formative years, we did not speak of love,
particularly love of self. In fact, I always thought that was a negative and self centered sort of thing! It was most holy to be selfless, invisible, sacrificing self silently for others ...taking care of youself last. I could not figure out how loving yourself could fit in with that presentation of self!
I lived many decades before I finally began to embrace this new idea ...
that I must love myself first, before I was really able to love others fully.
This calls me to take loving care of myself so that I can be present and available to others.
This calls me to learn to say "no" some of the time,
so that I can more completely say "YES" the rest f the time.
This calls my to be loving and accepting of myself
exactly as I am in the present moment,
knowing that God loves me in the now moment, no matter what!
Once I began to receive this gift from God,
I knew it was the greatest gift I could share with others.
I hope you find yourself surrounded by love this day,
beginning with a deep love for youself,
a love that is lived out in awareness of the great love that is our God!
Love, Cate
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