Let us live it, in Love.

Good morning Life,

How are you? I'm here to greet your Day. Standing here beneath the big yellow sun, holding my face up for your kiss.

I've been missing your friend, Day. I've been missing leaping from Night's bed with an open heart, eager to face you. Missing standing in the beauty of your light streaming down in golden hues to anoint me with your blessings and embrace me in possibilities.

I know. I know. I've been absent. Crawling sleepily, eyes squinting, limbs heavy every morning. I know. I know. I've been grumbling endlessly about the long dark nights of Winter. but, I'm here now, Life. I'm here and I'm awakened.

I'm eager to see you. Eager to meet you on the corner of Anticipation. Please welcome me to your Light. I can see her, streaming full of you joy, tumbling, full of abundance, into the garden of Peace.

I can see you now. And I am eager to meet you all the way on the other side of the darkness, stepping fulling into Life.

Your faithful servant,

Me :)

Ok. So don't ask where this greeting came from -- I couldn't tell you. But, when my fingertips hit the keyboard this morning, this is what came out. So, I went with it. Went with the flow and let Life take over.

I taught last night in Project Forward, a 12 week Financial management and life skills course I teach with a volunteer, Ram. I am not the financial side of the equation. I do the life skills :).

I asked the class my favourite question -- to give me one word to describe themselves. The list held words like Honest. Truthful. Kind. Energetic. Positive. Hopeful.

I asked everyone, "What do you want more of in your life?"

"Respect." "Hope." "Opportunity." The answers were many -- and money was way down on the list.

Integrity. Work. Possibilities. Honour. Stability...

We also did the part of the exercise where I ask them, "What words do you think people use, 'out there', to describe those who are experiencing homelessness?"

Lazy was the first response. Bums. Addicts. Worthless... and the list of negatives came quickly.

There was silence in the room for a moment as everyone stared at the list of negatives written on the white board beside the positives. You could hear a pin drop.

"So," I asked. "When you go 'out into the world', knowing you live in this place called a homeless shelter, which words do you carry with you? Which self-concept do you hold?"

Silence. Finally, one man spoke. "Wow. If I believe people are thinking that about me, then it's not their thinking that is limiting. It's mine."

and the conversation grew.

We talked about the challenges of using what they'd learned in the class when they believed they were, 'unworthy'.

"I'm so grateful you did this list," said one man who has lived at the shelter for about six months. Tall. Good looking, not 'visibly homeless'. It was gambling that brought him down to street level. "If I believe myself to be worthless, even if it's in other's eyes, I'm not going to give myself worth in the community. I'm going to live what I perceive to be their truth of me. I won't hold my own value. I'll just keep sinking."

And sinking. Added another man.

It is all in our attitude, said one.

Yeah, agreed another. And my attitude sucks sometimes. I've got to quit beating myself up. I've got to start holding my head high.

And the conversation kept going, and the men kept sitting taller and I kept seeing human beings lighting up, finding the courage and strength and beauty within, so that they could step beyond the boundaries of the walls of a homeless shelter, into the light of a brand new Day waiting to greet them. Into the joy of Life seeking to embrace them.

And that's where that letter this morning came from. A place of joy. A place of gratitude. A place of knowing -- we are all human beings, doing whatever it takes to find our place in the world. Being our perfect selves, perfectly human in all our human imperfections.

Let us live today with hearts filled with gratitude, spirits lifted in joy and our faces uplifted to greet the morning in anticipation of a Brand New Day. Let us fill our hearts with hope. Let us open our minds to our limiting beliefs so we can see how limitless the possibilities of this day when we let go of the fear, we are not enough. Let us live today without judgments. Let us live it in Love.

I invite you to write a letter to Life today inviting her in to fill your day with her limitless possibilities.

May your day be filled with the beauty of you. May your world be filled with love, joy and peace.

Nameste.