All I need is Love

Yesterday I had an email from a woman whom I admire greatly who shared with me her perspective on God. God is Love, she said.

As I drove home from a meeting I thought about her words. My mind journeyed back into my childhood when God was a massive hand extending down from the heavens, laying heavily on my head, holding me in place and time for fear I might run away and do something 'wrong'. God didn't want me to be free. God didn't want me to have fun. God didn't want me to do anything other than what my mother said!

God made me angry. He didn't make sense.

Growing up, I don't remember hearing, God loves you. I do remember hearing my mother say, 'whatever you do, remember, God knows' and her index finger would stick straight up and wave back and forth like a metronome counting the seconds off without skipping a beat as I marched to my damnation.

God was not my friend when I was a child.

I think about Him now, about my thoughts and ideas and feelings and fears and I wonder about Love.

When I started on my journey away from the hell of being abused, I planted myself firmly in love. I reminded myself every day that each step I took was further from the past. How I took those steps was up to me. I had to take them. I had to face what had happened, acknowledge my mistakes, how I'd harmed people, what I'd done. And I had to forgive, myself and others. I had to apologize and make amends. Those were steps on my pathway to claiming my freedom, my beautiful life today. How I took those steps was up to me. I could do them kicking and screaming and whining about what had happened, what he'd done to me. Or, I could take each step supported in Love.

I chose to journey 'in Love'. It was the only way I could have peace of mind, a quiet heart and a tender soul.

So often in life, we are faced with hurdles, with obstacles that rise up and scare us into running back into the darkness from whence we came. So often, we spend our time looking at the negative values of our experiences while the positive light wanes in our memories.

Have you ever woken up and felt the tendrils of a dream drifting back into the night as you struggle to remember what it was you dreamt that you didn't want to forget?

That's what happens when we focus our attention on the negatives. We lose the tendril of hope the dream awoke in us when we first opened our eyes. As we focus on remembering the bad stuff, we lose the trail of the good stuff leading us into the light.

Life is full of bumps and bruises. Life can be difficult. It can be smooth sailing. It can be rough.

It isn't the road that makes the difference, it's what we choose to carry with us that tempers our progress.

If I choose to carry a load of regret, of bitterness and anger, my journey will be slow and laborious. The weight of my sorrow will weigh me down and my steps will become mired in the mud of my despair.

If I choose to travel light of heart, eager of spirit, my voyage will be joyous. I'll still be travelling with the same person, and the place from which I start will still be the same, but the tempo of my progress will be different and the direction I take will change as I move with steadfast progress into the light of being my one true self. When I choose to take each step filled with Love, my heart will be peaceful and my mind open to the limitless possibilities of the road before me.

Life has issues. So do I!

The issues, however, are nothing compared to my spirited progress when I choose to focus on what is loving and healing and caring of me and my life. When I choose to stand in Love, I am choosing to let go of the darkness, my fears, and my trepidations about the day ahead. When I walk with my heartbeat gently echoing the steady beat of God's infinite Love of the Universe, I am Love. And when I am Love, I am magnificent.

Be your true magnificent self today. For just this moment, put down the regrets, the sorrows, the fears that are keeping you stuck in wishing life were different, and look up into the sky beyond. Straighten your spine, lower your shoulders, stick your chest out and take a deep, deep breath. Keep looking up. See the limitless possibilities of the sky above. See how far it goes beyond the imagination.

That is life. And life is Love.

With every breath you breathe, you are breathing Love into the magnificent being you are meant to be. With every step you take, you are walking into your destiny of being magnificently in Love.

I believe we come into this world through an act of Love. We leave it supported by Love. And all we can leave behind is Love. If this were to be my last day on planet earth, I would ask that I be remembered by my Love of the world around me.

If this is my best day yet on planet earth, I ask that I spend it in Love with me and my world.

What about you?

Yesterday I received an email from a friend filled with Love. No matter what language I say it in, what word I use to describe it, Love is all I need to be connected to the magnificence of me, and the magnificence of you.

For today, I give to you Love. May you journey through your day filled with the limitless possibilities of the magnificence of you lighting your path when you stand in Love.