Beating against doors

Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. Dr. Laura Schlessinger

Everyday I am blessed with the opportunity to speak out against abuse, homelessness, poverty and other social ills. Everyday I am inspired by someone who turns up and speaks their truth, in all their confusion and pain.

Yesterday, I gave a talk to a group of about 50 blue. At the end of my speech, a woman approached and asked if she could speak with me in private.

We stepped to the back of the room and she quietly asked, "You mentioned you have counsellors there. Can anyone talk to them?"

"Is this for someone you know who is at risk of homelessness?" I asked.

"It's for me," she tearfully told me. "I'm not at risk of homelessness, but my live-in boyfriend is an addict and I don't know what to do."

"What do you want to do?" I asked her.

"I don't know," she cried. "I want him to change. To stop what he's doing. He steals from me. I have to hide money, credit cards, my wallet, everything."

"What if you can't stop him? What if you only have the power to stop what he's doing in your life?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if the only way to stop what he's doing in your life is to not have him in your life?"

"But I love him," she cried.

Don't spend your time beating your head against a wall expecting a door.

When we allow things in our lives that degrade us, the undermine our beauty, that steal our peace of mind, and then expect someone else to change, we are looking for doors in walls.

I have done it. I'm stopping.

The question is: what about you? Are you beating your head, or opening doorways into freedom?


PS-- I am still without internet access so my posts are later. Hopefully.... technology gods willing.... tomorrow I will be back on schedule.

Nameste