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LIVING BY DESIGN NEWSLETTER
by Leslie Karen Sann, MA, LCPC
V5, #4
February 28, 2005
IN THIS ISSUE
Coming
Home to the Loving
Quotes
Practically Speaking
Wonder Questions
COMING
HOME TO THE LOVING
Powerful People Make Things Easy (Part 24)
(This article is a continuation of a series
about our personal power to create the life we want)
I recently attended an extended family gathering -
something I was hesitant to do in the past. I seemed to source my actions
from obligation and duty rather than choice. In doing so I set myself up
to judge the situation and people involved - myself included, for
succumbing to the pressure, both inwardly and outwardly to attend.
This time I examined my judgments prior to my
attendance. I realized my judgments were telling me I yearned for deeper
more genuine connection with these people who have been given to me as my
family. I was weary of the superficiality of our conversations and yearned
for heart food.
It dawned on me that I was the problem. That my
attitude was shaping the experience I was having. My judgments were
filtering the interactions and I was getting to be right about my
pre-formed opinions. Ugh.
If I wanted heart connection I wondered, what was I
going to do to create/invite that experience?
I chose to attend with an open heart, eager to greet
and meet those I have been given to call my family and to find the
connections I was hungry for.
One of my many cousins was kind enough to pick me up
at the airport. In the car was his daughter and her beau who had also just
arrived at the airport. The ride was filled with catch up conversation,
teasing, laughter, and lots of noise. Instead of withdrawing from the
noise to take care of my travel tired and sensitive self, I enjoyed
participating in the noisy sounds of people coming together after a long
absence.
On the way to the hotel we stopped by my cousin's
house. Though I was anxious to get to the hotel so I could check in and
change for the dinner we were now going to be late for, I was pleased to
be invited to see the home they love and meet their new dogs. In the past
I might have been irritated by the delay. Instead I noticed the loving
kindness and the heart sharing this stop at the house represented and let
that feed me.
Upon arrival at the dinner my mother's youngest
sister greeted me warmly, and asked how my folks were (they could not
attend this event due to my dad recovering from pneumonia). We both
instantly began to tear up as we shared our heart love for my folks and
our concern for their well being.
The evening progressed in much the same way. The
host of the event, another cousin, clearly happy for my choice to attend,
proceeded to introduce me as the sister he never had, and shared how glad
he was I had made the trip.
And there was more. Cousin after cousin, aunts and
uncles, sister, brother-in-law, nieces, all lit up as we greeted. I was
home. Not home as in this is where I live. But home as in THIS IS WHERE I
LIVE. I was HOME in my HEART.
When I am standing in my Loving, all I can see is
Love.
Standing in my heart, I can see that it is in our
perception and our approach that the real power lies. The gifts of love,
acceptance and enjoyment are ours if we choose. We each have the power to
choose.
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Related Articles:
Nothing More Important than the Loving
Gratitude: Bringing in the Harvest
Whose Business is it Anyway?
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QUOTES:
"Use all the cooks you can to make the
broth"
~ Martha Ringer ~
"Learn to be quiet enough to hear the sound
of the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in
others."
~ Marian Wright Edelman ~
"As soon as we relate together, give up that
uniqueness of our own ego, and enter the ordinariness of who we are, God
manifests."
~ John-Roger ~
" . . . to love human beings is still the
only thing worth living for - without that love, you really do not
live."
~ Kierkegaard ~
"Everywhere I look, I see the face of
God."
~ Walt Whitman ~
"Your vision will become clear only when you
look into your heart."
~ Carl Jung ~
"It is yourself that must constantly be
transforming. You cannot bring the same stale self to the world and expect
the world to be new for you."
~ Deepak Chopra ~
"Seek out the good and your mind will fill
with happiness."
~ John Templeton
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PRACTICALLY SPEAKING:
- Notice where in your life you feel separate,
distant, apart from situations or people.
- Ask yourself if there are any judgments that you
are placing out thus creating a barrier between you and others.
- Become aware of how you distract yourself with
personalities and behaviors and forget to observe the essence of the
person.
- Commit to the Loving.
- Begin to see through the eyes of Love.
- Watch your world transform.
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WONDER QUESTIONS:
- What are you making more important than the
Loving?
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COPYRIGHT/CONTACT INFO/REPRINT PERMISSION
c Copyright 2005 by Leslie Karen Sann, Living by Design
Visit this link for contact information:
leslie@living-bydesign.com
Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears in full:
Copyright 2005 by Leslie Karen Sann,
Living by Design.All rights reserved.
Web site. http://www.living-bydesign.com
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