Tag: compassion

inspiration, motherhood, Writing

To Love, Always

WFAM

“There is a famous question that shows up, it seems, in every single self-help book ever written: What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

But I’ve always seen it differently. I think the fiercest question of all is this one: What would you do even if you knew that you might very well fail?”

–Liz Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

There are only two things I would do no matter how many times I fail.

Writing is the first.

Loving others is the second.

There are times I despaired when my essays were rejected or the doors of opportunity jolted shut, but I always returned to my notebook.

As for loving others, this has proven a bit more complicated. Throughout my life I have spent so much energy mitigating the love in my heart so that I might blend in, but, much to my amazement my heart lives life on its own terms.

My heart believes that each of us are intrinsically good, and when when we cover over this “goodness” it’s because somewhere along the way, we believed something untruthful about ourselves. In whatever form rejection came to us, we believed the lie that enveloped it. We mistakenly thought we weren’t enough as-we-are and in order to have love, we needed to change ourselves. We cannot blame the messengers of these lies. They, too, were lied to about their own value and worth and like us, believed they weren’t enough as-they-are.

Therefore to offer compassion and forgiveness to another, no matter how much they have hurt us, is essentially offering this same love and compassion to ourselves.

We all have traits and characteristics we wish we could change. We all have ways we could improve, but the only thing we ever need to do, is return ourselves, our views, our opinions, and our perspectives, and bring them all back to love.

Never, ever stop loving.

children, eyesight, gratitude, happiness, health, life in pictures, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, self-discovery

Limitless Sky

WFAM

Life hands you challenges sometimes. When you are faced with these, it is often difficult to understand why.

I have two young boys that were born with a rare genetic eye disorder called ectopia lentis.

I don’t know exactly why this happened.

All I do know is that it has put us on a path in life that is beyond anything we expected. We have been connected to amazing people we never would have met otherwise. We have had to test our mettle over and over each time victorious in the knowledge that as a family, we can overcome any obstacle.

So, I may not know exactly why vision challenges came into our lives. At least now I’ve had time and growth to realize some of the amazing lessons that have gone along with it.

If we can do this, we can do anything.

Think about any challenge you have lived through or are living with right now. If you can do that, you can do anything, too.

The sky’s the limit.

This is a pic of the boys being introduced by the director at the Vision is Priceless annual fundraiser. We are very thankful to this organization for all they do. Check out their link in my blog roll.

children, mommyhood

The Compassionate Boy

WFAM

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Can you really consider it to be stress-relief yoga if you have two children utilizing the space you create between yourself and the floor as their tunnel? Hey, at least they were playing together.

Full Speed is mastering the many complexities of the English language. He is full of questions and curiosity. He asks me constantly about words and their meanings. Yesterday he asked me what ‘compassion’ meant. I asked where he had heard the word and to describe the context. He said he heard it on his ‘Hotwheels’ cartoon. A compassionate Hotwheels cartoon, who knew such a thing existed? I still don’t fully understand exactly what he was talking about. He said there was an army and then they captured compassion and wouldn’t give it back. I’m guessing he heard it somewhere else. Who knows?

I did my best to explain it. I said it has to do with caring about how someone else feels. For instance, if your brother is happy then you are happy for him. Conversely, if he feels sad, then you feel sad. Compassion also means doing what you can to help others feel better. Full Speed seemed satisfied with that explanation.

As I sat at the computer yesterday typing away as I am now known to do for the love of my blog, the boys are out playing on the lanai. They alternate between being best friends and mortal enemies. I try to ignore them because I find that the resolution they reach on their own is always more solid than the resolution that Mom reaches for them. It’s not easy to ignore the piercing screams and cries for help (all highly over-dramatized). I think a Mom’s greatest strength is her ability to tune out nonsense so everyone can get on with their lives.

Full Speed runs in and says, “Mommy, I showed T.Puzzle compassion because I gave him my car and it made him happy. I felt happy because he was happy.”

I think he is getting it. It is fun to see your growing child begin to understand intricate emotional states. It’s almost as if you can see the adult inside of them beginning to peek out.

However, his compassionate feeling didn’t last long. Soon he had snatched his car back and started hitting T.Puzzle over the head with it.

Looks like I need to teach T.Puzzle the meaning of self-defense.

A Mom’s work is never done.

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