Have you ever stopped to consider that you are loved….really and truly, without a doubt, totally adored by a Universe that just wants to send you mushy, gushy Valentines every day of your life? Yeh, I know that there are some days when it would be easier to believe the it barely tolerates your existence or even worse, wants to send you wilted roses with thorns sticking out all over the place or a Whitman’s Sampler with nibbles or even big honking bites taken out of your favorite treats.  But what if all that stands between you and totally embracing your loving co-creator is simply a thought?  It could be an erroneous belief that you are damaged goods, beyond repair or redemption. It might be a throwback to a time when someone told you or even implied that you were unworthy. Your innocence has no expiration date. No matter what events led you inexorably to this here and now moment, you are no less loveable.

Even as I write these words, I have recent memories of anything but self love; a co-dependent dance that has me tripping over my own feet at times and once  in awhile, taking a few graceful twists and turns. I have cringed as I heard myself in the deep recesses of my mind being self-deprecating in ways I wouldn’t dare speak to someone else.

At the moment, I am feeling quite loved, from the inside out and the outside in. Just completed a 5 day retreat at Grail Springs, beginning on Sunday when those sitting in the opening circle, with the exception of my friend Ondreah, were all ‘strangers’ who had come from all over Canada to immerse in an experience of ahhhh…most without having a clue of what awaited them. Tonight, as we sat in the closing circle, we shared what it had meant to us. Words of love and support flew around the room and landed on each of our hearts, sinking in. Last night, during an ‘angel wash’ exercise during which each person walked with eyes closed, down the center of the aisle of the other folks, with affirming messages being whispered, I burst into laughter amidst my tears as one of the women told me “You’re so awesome, you should be Canadian.” I asked if they would adopt us and they agreed. Ondreah and I are now honorary Canadians.

Tomorrow as I head home, I carry the love with me in my suitcase and my heart.

http://youtu.be/6mFsV_5fAuU  How Could Anyone-Shaina Noll

“How could anyone ever tell you? You were anything less than beautiful… How could anyone ever tell you? You were less than whole…
How could anyone fail to notice? That your loving is a miracle… How deeply you’re connected to my soul…”