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Self-Forgiveness as a form of Self-Love
In yesterday’s post I responded to Rosemary’s exploration about Self-Love – how it feels. And I touched on forgiveness as a way of letting go, freeing oneself of bonds that constrict one’s growth and interfere with Self-Love which in turn interferes with one’s ability to love at all!
Then it hits; the lesson! It seems that as soon as I begin to think deeply about something I get hit with the exact lesson to drive home the understanding! Yesterday we were under time-pressure to finalize Rosemary’s class for that evening, to put together the presentation and collect all the materials. Then the printer indicated low ink supply, so it was off to Staples for more. But here’s the thing: we had received a big discount offer in the mail earlier in the week; I planned to use it for more ink. The discount could only be used online but I did not get a chance to get the order placed. And now we needed ink immediately. I stormed out of the house, hair on fire with the time-crunch foremost in my mind, and raced off to get the additional supplies. Then to compound an already harried day, I left material behind when we raced off to the class. More rushing, now we are late, more storming around!
It’s tough to reach into Self for some Love under these circumstances! It can only start with forgiveness!
The lessons here are multi-layered but the main one is Self-forgiveness. I had intended to order the ink. But the week was busy and it didn’t get done. As it turned out I didn’t even need the ink yet; the printer only sent me a warning. Everything turned out fine, the class was a great success and my hair didn’t really catch on fire! And now I even have a story to base this post on!
I am calm now. And I did learn something today, again, that’s very important: every moment is a learning experience, or at least an opportunity. If we pause in the moment and ask: “What is this?” even in the midst of the chaos and flaming hair, then we can begin the learning process. If we get angry, impatient, frustrated, and harried there is no room for learning, and likely, no peace, no calm, no Love! But it is not an easy practice to stop in the midst of the chaos, deadlines, time-constraints and frustrating interruptions to ask: “What is this?” Yet, this is the lesson and this is why we are here!
And at the end of the day I even have to look back and forgive myself for not only my impatience and anger, but the failed practice! It just keeps on compounding!
But isn’t this what “practice” is all about? If it is no longer practice, then we would not need to be here. Our purpose will have been fulfilled.
For now I’m just going to keep on practicing. Self-forgiveness is a very big and necessary action for those of us with a lot of Wood Element in our make-up. This is a reference to the main element type, of five, that I resonate with from Dr. Charles Moss’ work: Power of the Five Elements. I am nearly finished with the book, a fantastic reference for anyone interested in Chinese Medicine, the Tao, acupuncture and health. (I will review the book here once I have finished my detailed read of it.) Here is just a sample of why this book is helping with my practice:
“Forgiveness and patience, the Virtues associated with the Wood Type, come from the vision and insight of the Wood energy. These Virtues can neutralize frustration, anger, impatience, and hostility (the toxic emotions and actions of the poorly adapted Wood Type) and create a path back to adaptation.”
My practice continues to transform the toxic emotions into these Virtues, to create a path to adaptation, or what Dr. Moss calls “knowing how to be.”
What Does Self-Love Look Like? –Richard’s Commentary
“Love creates. Love bonds. Love attracts and holds securely. Love frees. Love develops and Love lets go. Love releases bonds that no longer serve.”
When I first read Rosemary’s “litany” about Love, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians came to mind, that often used text in Christian weddings: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” (Quoted from the NIV Bible published by Zondervan.)
While these lists of what Love looks like are superficially very different, they certainly are parallel. Rosemary’s list is about creation and development. There are bonds in Love but those bonds need to serve, not hinder growth. And Paul’s description of Love can certainly apply to creative development, growth. His words almost more appropriately apply to the Love between parent and child; there is a definite paternal quality to his list which likely reflected his feelings toward the Corithians.
Then how do these descriptions of Love apply to Self-Love, the main topic of Rosemary’s post? Creation and development are key in Rosemary’s list. And I believe this is very true for Self-Love to grow and flourish. As humans we can never stop growing, Life is about learning our lessons. And these lessons are all about the evolution of Consciousness. The explosive creation of the Universe, out of Love, initiated this entire evolutionary expansion we find ourselves in the midst of. If we were loved into existence then isn’t it incumbent on us to continue that love-stream?
Then look at what Paul says in the context of Self-Love: it is all about development, growth of a child. What if we apply these actions of patience, kindness, recording no wrongs toward ourselves? This creates an environment for learning our lessons, for expanding our consciousness and contributing to the evolution of Consciousness.
Paul’s and Rosemary’s litanies about Love turn out to be highly parallel and mutually supportive!
And what if we treat ourselves as they both implore? Rosemary says “Love releases bonds that no longer serve.” And Paul says Love “keeps no record of wrongs.” These words are describing forgiveness. And, for me, Self-Love and self-forgiveness are closely bound. There can’t be one without the other. I can only love myself from the capacity to forgive myself. And I can only forgive myself from that secure base of Self-Love.
When I am feeling low I sometimes need to drag out that “record of wrongs” I keep on myself and remember they are past wrongs that I need to let go; I need to release those “bonds that no longer serve.” This is a recurring theme for me; forgiving myself is at the base of picking myself up by my own bootstraps.
“Love is kind, it is not rude, it is not easily angered.” “Love frees.” I need to apply these words to me, often and always. Then perhaps I’ll more easily know what Self-Love does look like. And then, too, I’ll be contributing more to the evolution of Consciousness!
What does Self-Love look like for you?
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: What Does Self-Love Look Like?
For each individual the specifics of Self-Love will differ, but the underlying energy is the same.
Love is a very high vibration, much higher than Romance, with which many people confuse Love. The energy of Pure Love is the vibrational frequency of the unifying force of the Universe. Love creates. Love bonds. Love attracts and holds securely. Love frees. Love develops and Love lets go. Love releases bonds that no longer serve.
These statements are true for every element in the Universe, from the smallest particle of matter to the energy of a human being to the largest planets, stars, galaxies. Love is the strongest force in the Universe.
All Love flows from Self-Love. The Universe-before-the-Universe so loved itself that it exploded into the Universe that you are experiencing at this time in the 21st Century. Everything that exists in this Universe was created out of energy potential of the Love that existed in that explosion of Self-Love. Every Universe came from that same energy.
In the life of every human being, there must be enough Self-Love to explode energy – that is the creative force energy – to manifest dreams into reality. If there is not enough Self-Love, then energy is sucked into oneself without the pure expression of Love energy in the outer world.
Those who exist with little or no Self-Love cannot manifest their high vibration dreams and desires.
All Love blossoms out of Self-Love. If you have a high enough level of this Self-Love then you cannot help but overflow into sharing that Love as Creative Energy in the world around you.
No relationship improves by working on it without also elevating one’s level of Self-Love. No situation – job, career, financial, legal, etc. – will improve before the person involved increases the level of Self-Love within.
What does this look like?
For one person, Self-Love might appear as eating a healthier diet. For another, it might be taking time to meditate or journal or walk in Nature. For someone else, Self-Love may mean severing a friendship, ending a relationship or quitting a job.
One person might need to speak their truth aloud. Another might need to stay quiet and change their situation.
The high vibration of Self-Love eclipses lashing out to hurt another but that doesn’t mean that others might not choose to feel hurt or even to play the victim in the situation. Self-Love leads one to stand in their own truth no matter what happens outside and around them. There is no intention to hurt another and yet there is also no responsibility for the reception one receives when standing in Self-Love.
Self-Love is not the same as Self-Care but all Self-Care develops out of Self-Love if it is healthy care. One does not rebel or feel guilty when Self-Care stems from Self-Love. There is a neutral character to this Self-Care—it just IS because it is based in Self-Love.
Ask yourself if you Love yourself enough to make choices from a place of Self-Love. Are you willing to look inside yourself and to love every part that you find there? Are you open to loving even those parts that you are wishing to change, simply because they are YOU and they have served you in some way up to this point?
Self-Acceptance and Self-Care come from Self-Love. As the Universe loved itself into existence, so should your Life be a reflection of great Self-Love. If you are unhappy about some element of your Life, then focus on increasing your level of Self-Love so that your Life can change to reflect that higher level of Love vibration.
Love your Life into existence as you desire, letting it blossom forth from Self-Love.
PS: In honor of the Equinox this week Rosemary is offering a Spring Cleaning Special – a big discount on your Scientific Hand Analysis Session — $100 off! This is the time to learn about your Soul Purpose and the gifts you’ve been given to manifest that Purpose in your life. If you’re ready to leap forward and take advantage of those expectations then send Rosemary an email and she’ll give you the discount code for your Scientific Hand Analysis Session. Get your Spring Cleaning done by clearing away the questions you have about ‘Why am I here?’ and ‘What are my next steps?’! rosemary@TheScientificMystic.com
Need more information on Scientific Hand Analysis? Find it here!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Love Yourself into Your Greatness!
Here’s Rosemary’s video for the week: Love Yourself into Your Greatness!
PS: Are you interested in the subject of “Life after Life”? Rosemary did an interview with BlogTalkRadio program, Explore the Afterlife, the other day. Check out the recording here!
“How Far Is Your Reach?” a Commentary from Richard
Have you reviewed the video and commentary by Rosemary from her FREE weekly MuseLetter? I posted them over the past couple of days; if you want to receive them directly you can subscribe here. Today here are my thoughts on the support Rosemary offers for living a conscious life and her theme of the week, How Far is Your Reach?:
When I first saw Rosemary’s question I immediately thought of the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” – probably a natural connection, especially at this time of the year. It is an interesting exercise to look at one’s life and try to imagine the changes there would be in the world if you had never been born! I know that Frank Capra’s movie on this subject is a favorite for many; it’s not one of mine. Oh, it’s well made, well acted and the story is certainly compelling. But I find it on the dark side. Hey, but maybe that’s the whole point! The world would be a darker place had you never been born!
Our reach is as far as our connections. But we still may not know exactly how to measure this because we are not likely aware of all of our connections, let alone the influence of those connections or the influence through those connections to yet others. And if we are all connected then our reach is as far as the farthest person from us. Of course, if we are all One then we are connected to everything, all matter, substance, creation, through time and space; our reach is to the edge of the Universe, whatever that might mean. Certainly as far as we can “see” and that’s about 13.3 billion light-years (the farthest galaxy yet seen in the Universe)!
So we have to be pretty careful, right? We do know through quantum physics studies that particles immense distances apart do influence one another; it’s as if they are connected by aka cords! If particles are so connected how much more are we connected to everything through our energy fields (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual). Since we are made of particles and energy ourselves then we are infinitely connected to everyone and everything else.
An example of this was given to me by our Acupuncturist and Qigong instructor, Bridget Hughes, who has studied the influence, interaction and impact of DNA across distances. Our DNA is as ubiquitous as we are! It can influence other DNA. Experiments have demonstrated that another person’s DNA affects our own, and long after contact. Of course the environmental impact on our DNA is well studied and can be of great concern as our environment deteriorates.
Examining our reach at this cellular, even particle level brings me to our own inner reach. If we can reach outward to the far reaches of the Universe then we can also reach inward to these also distant places – the vast empty space within atomic and nuclear structures! Again, we not only have these deep connections within ourselves but they influence others as well. It makes perfect sense then, that we first must love ourselves, create that nurturing healthy environment for ourselves at the deepest inner levels; and then, our outward influence will be of a loving, nurturing quality that reaches out to everyone!
Rosemary’s experiment with me as the “guinea pig” is another example of this. By focusing my thoughts on a problem I was trying to solve I brought my energy field of influence very close to my body. Then by expanding my thoughts, and emotions, on loved ones and that love feeling, I was able to expand my field to reach beyond the building! The quality of the thought, especially when combined with feeling, expanded my sphere of influence and created a sense of ease and well being.
So, when you walk into a room do you think about your problems, concerns about finding someone to talk to, wondering what you might talk about, or do you enter with an open heart expecting to meet wonderful people and spread your joy to others, and in turn be enriched by their influence?
And how about the entrepreneurs reading this post and wondering about their reach? When you are writing your newsletter or sales copy, are you projecting love and joy out to your ideal clients, or are you focused on the task of getting the next client to fill your practice?
The choice is always yours. Mine is keeping my heart as open as possible at all times, setting clear boundaries and knowing my reach is as wide as the Universe!
PS: Have you ever attended an event with Rosemary? Have you ever visited a medium? Here’s your chance! The last Conversation with The Other Side of 2012 is tomorrow, Friday, December 7, at 7:00 PM Eastern/4:00 PM Pacific. It’s a Video Conference call, no need for you to travel! Just use your internet connection or even a phone! There’s still time to register; your seat is waiting for you!
Love and Self-Love: Part 2
(Post-Epilogue: Today, November 30, I broke one of my special, probably most precious, Yixing teapots, one that I’ve had with me for years. Another loss, this one more permanent than misplaced reading glasses and a lot closer to my heart. Lesson? Another one; very hard this time? Really? Clearly I am in a fast-paced learning mode at this stage of my journey!)
Self-Love. Not a simple path. Practice Love; begin with self!
It is even difficult to go back to my last post and read my own words on this subject. How do I love self, the clumsy oaf who swept his pot from the counter in an over-exuberant flourish? But life hasn’t stopped and I must Love on!
My first step in working through the lesson today, the loss of another precious object, is to accept impermanence. It’s all just temporary, right? Let go. Yes, of course, grieve the loss. But within the grief is the built-in praise. I can certainly find gratitude for all the years of service the pot gave me. My memories of pouring tea from it, admiring the design, experiencing the beautiful color develop over the years of use are still with me to celebrate. This is another reminder of the cycle in everything; the pot began as dirt in a ditch in China; the dirt was harvested, hopefully with ceremony, thanksgiving and praise; then it was processed into clay, worked, hand-shaped, finished and fired; somehow it made it all the way from China to me safely; and now it returns to dust.
When I worked with micaceous clay in New Mexico with master potter, Felipe Ortega, we experienced the entire life-cycle of the clay. I made several small pots; and while my first attempts were nothing to take pictures of, they were special to me. One of the assignments, we later learned, was to sacrifice a pot to the Holy. We each broke one of our pots against a post as an offering, as a way of giving thanks for the clay and for our hands that shaped the clay, and the Holy who shaped us all. The shards remained in that spot for years afterward. And we each took a shard from that pile of rubble to grind down and incorporated into our next pot; the cycle was unbroken.
I can do this with a shard from my teapot. I can keep it going, giving, by recycling it in a personal and useful way. The object doesn’t go away, it only changes its shape. “Pots are fashioned from clay, but it’s the emptiness that makes a pot work.” – Taoteching, Ch. 11. The pot may be impermanent, but the clay is still there as is the emptiness!
As another step in the learning, can I turn the curse at my ill luck at breaking the pot into a blessing? This is another practice I learned in Bolad’s Kitchen with Martín Prechtel. Oh, yes, I did curse myself, my luck, my inattention, my carelessness, my mindlessness as I watched the pot tumble to the floor and become shards. Then I withdrew before my anger spilled over too far to hit others in the path of my negative energy, the antithesis of self-love. And I went inside for awhile. And as I write I am still processing, learning to do it through words coming from the inside rather than holding it all in where it churns and festers. Where are the blessings that come from this loss? In a sense I have already done some of this work, thanking the pot for its years of service. But what about me? Can I find a way to bless me through this lesson? This is where it gets really hard!
I am here, at the keyboard, writing words that will help me work through the curses that I can’t take back. I am letting go the anger, giving it to the compost heap where it can metabolize back into usefulness rather than metastasize within me. And I can recall the years with the pot and all the use it gave me and the care I gave it during those years; we took good care of each other for a good long time. And I can place the pot in a corner of my mind to remind me to come back, cycle back to the present moment. And I can know that the pot can help me pay attention to everything in the moment; to expand my awareness beyond a narrow focus and take in my environment, appreciating very thing around me and near and dear to me.
So, I bless myself for my deep thought, my appreciation for fine things, my attention to detail and my broad and extraordinary experiences that come together to inform and refine my approach to life, and the impermanence that threads through it All.
And with moist eyes I come back to Love, even self-love as I accept my blessings and learn a bit more about forgiveness.
Love and Self-Love
(Epilogue: I went back to the post office this morning and they did have my glasses, pretty much right where I had left them. My immediate reaction was delight and gratitude, even for this small event. And then I asked myself about the lesson: mindfulness, gratitude, and never sweat the small stuff!)
In my on-going exploration of this subject of Self-Love (why is it so important?) I wrote something worth sharing in my daily “Pages” the other day:
It all comes back to trust. This is always hugely important. And trust falls back on Love. Everything rests on Love. All of creation springs from Love! And where does this love spring from? How did this “energetic” get launched, and “who” launched it? Of course, this is the mystery, this is The Goddess, The Holy. And this is Their echo across the gulf of time to now. It is Self-Love that launched all of Creation. It is the reflexive “thing” that initiated everything. And ultimately this “Thing” is a vast and unfathomable emptiness. It is the Void, the Deep referred to in Genesis. It is over this Deep that the Voice of Love spoke it all into being. (Or did She sing it?) How? Does it really matter? Why? This is the bigger question. Clearly, for me, this is about Self knowledge. It comes back to the reflection, the echo, the mirror we are for the Love Energy that pre-exists the All! That which came first is this “Thing” of which I write.
We, our consciousness, our love are the reflection of that original Love. This is the Image of God we wear and act. This is the image we see in every face, in every creature, in every being, in all of creation, The Created.
To Rosemary’s Video Inspiration and Exploration this week, her call to Self-Love, we respond as a reflection of creation and the creative force of Love. There is no way around it! If we are a reflection of the Love Energy that created everything, then we are Love and our response must be Love; it is essential for us to be the mirrors in which The Holy see themselves. Without us They don’t exist! Without our Love They show us faces of more limited emotions!
When we love ourselves, we love. When we love we reflect the face of Goddess. When we reflect the face of Goddess we are lovable and are loved. Love is this energetic through which all echoes reverberate. It is the Ether carrying the songs of praise across the valleys. It is the Water of Life carrying the whales’ songs from wave to shining wave. It is the Earth carrying the deep ground vibrations, the songs of the rocks from peak to purple peak. All of this is Love, nothing more. There is no deep mystery here other than What started it all. And maybe this question doesn’t really matter either. If Love is All then the beginning is Love as well. Accept this and everything becomes clear and real.
So, the words of Jesus are true: God is Love; and Love is God. We are Love; we are God. Love is both inside and outside. It is the substance and the substrate. It is the container and the contained. It is the bridge across the gulf and the gulf. It is emptiness and everything. It is nothing and All. It was before the beginning, It is now, and It will be after the end.
As a creature of now it is my purpose to reflect this power of the Universe, this Love in all that I do and through my very beingness. If I am Love, God, this creative force, this very Life Consciousness, then I can only be and act out of Love. And this includes loving me.
Self-Love. Not a simple path. Practice Love; begin with self!
“Gratitude and Loving Yourself” a Commentary from Richard
Have you reviewed the video and commentary by Rosemary from her FREE weekly MuseLetter? I posted them over the past couple of days; if you want to receive them directly you can subscribe here. Today here are my thoughts on the support Rosemary offers for living a conscious life and her theme of the week, Gratitude and Loving Yourself:
Self-Love. Some days this is really difficult. Rosemary writes everything is perfect just as it is right now in this moment; everything is in agreement with The Plan; everything is unfolding just as it needs to, bringing the perfect Plan into reality. Yes, we have lessons and are learning lessons, everyday, with every unfolding moment. And as we learn these lessons we move into next moments that are also perfect because we have experienced (maybe even learned) these lessons.
And the first step toward self-love is gratitude for self and the lessons being learned. OK, then I have a lot to be grateful for! Examples abound every day. I just got back from the post office, went to get my reading glasses out of my pocket (where I “always” put them) only to come up short; no glasses. So I search every pocket, in the car and various places I may have left them. No luck. I get angry, especially with myself for misplacing my “stupid glasses”! (As if they were suppose to remember where I left them!)
Over-reaction? Of course! Yet another lesson in – what? Patience with myself, always putting things where they “belong”, mindfulness? I’m reminded of a Zen story about a monk who goes to his master believing he is ready for the test of enlightenment. The monk dashes through the rain and puddles with his trusty umbrella to his master’s hut, bows and humbly kneels before the master fully prepared. The master asks: “On which side of the door did you leave your umbrella?” Unable to answer the monk even more humbly withdraws to meditate on mindfulness for another 7 years!
Gratitude for the lessons is one of the lessons! I am alive and healthy and unharmed. I can return to the post office tomorrow to see if I left my glasses there. Meanwhile I have a spare pair. And they are only “drug-store” reading glasses; easily replaced. Were they worth the anger and upset at their loss? Of course not. Did my anger at myself gain anything other than upset that extended to others in my presence? Not at all. Did I learn a lesson here? Maybe. Will I lose something in the future. Certainly. And will I learn the lesson today so that the next time I lose that thing I can let it go, forgive myself for the lapse and move on? Only with continued practice!
We are all every moment of life practicing at being alive, being fully present, being conscious in every moment. This is what the lessons are all about: our opportunity to practice. And when we get pretty good at one lesson we get a new one to practice. This is where the acceptance comes in. This is where the self-forgiveness enters. When we are grateful for these opportunities we do, in fact, begin to move toward self-love.
I would add a second step toward this practice of self-love; the next step after gratitude is trust. We have to trust the Plan, that there is a Plan, that there is a purpose to it all. And we have to trust that our lessons are part of this Great Plan, that we are alive at this time with everyone and everything around us in perfect order and proper unfolding of the grand structure that is in process of becoming. I have to trust that losing my glasses today in some small, almost infinitesimal way, contributed to the process of becoming. One more opportunity to practice self-love in spite of my frustration with myself contributes to the Scheme.
This trust is part of the mystery. How can I possibly believe that my loss and my lesson on patience and self-forgiveness, self-love contribute to the Unfolding Perfection? There is no proof here; there is no evidence, not even a shred, that this incident is significant. But I trust that it is. And because I trust I continue to practice. And because I continue to practice, learn my lessons, I am ever so slowly improving myself, taking steps on my journey. And maybe, just maybe in some completely mysterious way, that I may never understand or realize, the world will be a better place.
Self-Love. Not a simple path. It begins with gratitude and moves to trust. And there is so much more…practice, practice, practice!
Love
A couple of days ago I wrote about Peace and my charge to be a “Warrior of Peace.” I wrote that there is only one place to begin the quest for that peace, which must be known so intimately well that it is like our own skin if we are to be true defenders of Peace, and that’s inside – the first step of the quest is inward!
And what do we find when we go inward? I am reminded not only that today is Valentine’s Day but also that Rosemary’s daily video message today (you can get it here: TheScientificMystic.com) is about Love; and not just any kind of love, romantic love for example, but Self-Love! When you go inside do you find there that sense of love, especially self-love?
If we have no sense of how to love ourselves then how can we love others? If our mantra is “Everyone is doing their best” then doesn’t that apply to ourselves first? Love, forgiveness, peace—they all begin with oneself!
We are each a unique expression of humanity with a unique soul, purpose, mission, destiny. We have to be here and be us to make everything work in some incredibly complicated, interdependent way. The Universe created us to be here now. That is a lot to love about ourselves! Without us the world would be incomplete, imperfect.
There is both grand praise and deep grief in this self-loving. The grief comes from the immense responsibility we fall so short from standing up to. But if we are doing our best at all times then forgiveness finds a home in our consciousness if we let it in.
I am reminded here of a deep thought given to me by Martín Prechtel, one of my most honored and revered teachers (his most recent book published this January, expands on this concept much more eloquently than I could ever attempt. See it at: The Unlikely Peace of Cuchumaquic). We are all mutually and forever indebted for our life. Think for a moment of all you have that you are indebted for. And I’m not talking about “stuff” or bank-debt here. I’m talking about the deeper elements of life without which we could not live. How can we ever pay back the plants for the nourishment they provide and the air they produce for us to breathe? But we do our best and we offer all we have to pay the debt knowing all along that we can never make it; we can never pay it all back. The toll it takes from everything, everyone, especially Mother Earth to allow a human to grow, survive, thrive is just too great.
Knowing we can never repay is a source of both grief and praise at the same time (these feelings are really two sides of one emotion!). We grieve our indebtedness and still celebrate our lives as worth something, worth living, worth fulfilling our purpose. If we can’t celebrate life then there can be no meaning to any of it! We need to celebrate the perfection of our lives as token repayment, an honoring of the Mother for giving us this life in the first place! As Martín might put it: we feed (honor) the Holy (God/Goddess in all things) by celebrating our lives; and in turn the Holy feed us!
And out of this grief and praise comes Love! The Mother loves us into existence at great sacrifice. We are all born of love. And this is our first debt. We need to repay this love in kind. And this is where self-love really is important. It is not only the source of knowing how to love, it is partial payment for our very existence—the love that created us!
Peace, joy, fulfillment all spring from Love of Self! Celebrate this!
Men and The Goddess 