Love yourself, she needs you!

Blessings of Awareness
Several years ago on a trip home from a very holy visit to Boulder, Colorado, I found this note stuck on the back of the door in a bathroom stall at Denver airport.

I believe there are no accidents and that this was a message for me and everyone else who saw it. And I know it is a universal message and up to the perceiver to discern what the words mean to them. That is my job to figure out how to uncover my heart and let me in. The Buddhist writer and poet Stephen Levine writes that letting yourself back into your heart is how we heal.

I frequently find myself giving to or caring for someone in my community or family. I am realizing that is often easier than giving attention to me. And I am trying more to be the receiver and the giver in a relationships. I am practicing with my daughters Andrea and Ilana to let go and see them as the capable, strong independent young women able to care for themselves and their family and I do not have to tell them how to do it. Just be there when they need me. Most people I know take very good care of themselves. The piece to remember for me is to include myself in the category of 'who I care for.'

Spiritual Challenge
I can always open my heart and let myself in just a little bit more. I am always surprised all that fits within this little organ that sits in the middle of my universe.

The Vav reminds me that there is an always an opportunity to come home to your heart.

Spiritual Practice
One way to do that is to have more fun. So I joined the museum so I can go any time. I take time to listen to my heart and give her what she wants, food, rest, laughter, fun, friendships.

Treating myself as if I were my own lover, friend, neighbor, child, spouse is one way of creating a balance in my life and not leaving me out of getting attention-love that I need. I whine less, too.