On The Exception Of Love
Do you find some things hard to accept? Do these things create personal boundaries? Do the boundaries form limitations? Do the limitations shape character?
Try this exercise with me. Grab a piece of imaginary chalk. Draw a big circle. Now, throw everything you deem unacceptable into the circle. One by one. Keep going. Think harder. Chuck it all in.
As you’re throwing these items in your circle, recognize what you’re feeling-heartache, pain, anger, resentment, disgust, angst, nausea, overwhelm. The feelings associated with unacceptable events are never good, are they? Well, sometimes, but the emotion tied to those events is usually envy.
Keep going. Throw it all in. Then stand back and take a look. What a mess, right? Now pick that chalk back up and label your circle: baggage.
Take a few steps to the right and draw another circle. Make it big enough to fit you. Now, step into your circle. This is the circle of acceptance. It’s all you: mind, body and soul. It’s who you are, how you think, what’s important. If you take the time to make a list of these items you’ll start to see all the things you love about yourself because love and acceptance are inseparable.
It’s not a mistake that there’s a pumping heart in the center of you. This pulsating mass of muscle that shares the same universal symbol of love, keeps you alive. Embrace the notion that you are kept alive by love (you are).
Take another look at your baggage circle. Is there anything in that vast space worthy of your love? Do any of those items look different if you look at them from a perspective of love? Is it all still baggage? Or can something be saved? For instance, one of the high ticket items in my baggage circle is dishonesty. I can’t stomach it. But when I see it from the perspective of love then I’m able to see a different view, especially when the dishonesty may have come from a lack of love, or worse-pure fear. Suddenly there’s more to understand. It’s not black and white. It’s completely gray, and when examined from the angle of love, it actually turns white.
When you work from a center of love most things you think are black eventually turn white in the light. It takes time. It takes understanding. It takes an unbiased, flexible approach that’s sometimes maddening and other times quite easy. The good news is, it starts to get rid of your baggage. And when you start to get rid of your baggage, it becomes a whole lot easier to accept change in your life.
9 Comments
Maureen Cronin
October 17, 2012Tracey – just had to comment on how much I LOVE this one!
joy juice rockin through my soul now…
Maureen
tracey
October 17, 2012Maureen-I can see you shining from here…
Angela Ekvall
October 17, 2012Tracey,
The visual of the circle of acceptance is wonderful. It makes we want to actually grab a piece of chalk run outside and draw a circle so I can stand in it and feel it deeply.
Thank you for the reminder of perspective and how changing our perspective can make a world of difference.
Let the light shine,
Angel
tracey
October 17, 2012Angel-You’re not alone. I wanted to do the same thing! I think there’s so much to taking the time to just hit the pause button and rethink sometimes.
Melanie maddison
October 18, 2012Beautiful Tracey & yes it’s all about acceptance to what is, I’ve just had a very real experience of this very thing!
Even when we feel & sense the baggage in others (& ourselves) & it triggers us, we can shed light on it, sense where its coming from, often in just a knowing & loosen our hold, yes, yes, yes!
Seeing our outer circle containing the supposed baggage one is a huge brave move in coming into alignment, the present place of all there is.
sending love across the pond
tracey
October 18, 2012Melanie-thank you for your thoughts here. It is all about shedding light on the triggers and loosening our hold. If only it were as easy to do as it is to type, right? xx, t
Katharine Kali
October 19, 2012This is synchronicity to the max. I just had these epiphanies a couple days ago and you have so beautifully structured and written it down for me – for all of us.
Love conquers all. With eyes of love and compassion and understanding, we can see the child in everyone and the motives and experience that cause people and ourselves to act in certain ways. It is this love that forgives and accepts and enables us to grow. We are all children and the change to be made is to move through the pain and back to who we were in the beginning… A change back to when we were unchanged; forever playful, forever trusting, always present and unconditionally loving.
Thank you for spreading your wings love child.
Namaste
xx
tracey
October 23, 2012Katharine-you capture this all so beautifully. Synchronicity is a head-nod from the Universe letting you know that you’re right where you need to—”forever trusting, always present and unconditionally loving.” Thank you for sharing your love here. xx
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