Innocence Found

We are all seeking Love.

Truthfully though, we have no idea how to go about finding it.

We fight, argue, get frustrated, increase our expectations, lie, cheat and sometimes steal in the name of love.

And still it eludes us.

Sometimes we spend a lifetime making a career out of giving everything we have to everyone around us in the hopes that we will feel and be loved.  And still (most often)...nothing.

It's like eating cookies for breakfast, lunch and dinner and still expecting to lose weight!

Crazy!

What if there was a way to stop this insanity?  What if there was a way of actually receiving the love that you so desperately seek without all of the 'work' that goes along with it.  Would you sign up?

Afterall, we are beings created from love; it shouldn't really be all that hard to find it!

One thing that I find has been really filling me with love lately, is seeing the innocence in others. 

Especially the ones who are constantly wanting us to love them and who have no idea that their way of seeking love from us is literally driving us to drink! 

The wife who feels neglected, the husband who feels unappreciated, the parents who feel disrespected, the employee who feels taken advantage of, etc., etc., etc.

All of these scenerios call for us to look for the innocence in the other person (and especially in ourselves).

Okay, let me put it this way.  If every single being on this planet is here to learn how to love.  And every single being on this planet is seeking love.  Then it makes sense that we are all innocent in our search! 

I mean, I didn't get a roadmap to finding love.

Did you? 

I didn't think so!

We are all children wanting to be loved.  Some know how to get it and some have found it.  Others are still seeking and still more are pushing the people they want love from the most, away.

The difficult part of seeing innocence in others may be in your perspective of what that other person has done or what you feel they deserve.  Well, none of that matters, so you can get that out of your head or at least know that you can still practice finding innocence even if you currently believe something different about the situation.

What I find happens for me when I see someone's innocence, I simultaneously see my own innocence.  Where there is innocence there is forgiveness, where there is forgiveness there is love.

Of course (because I'm not done learning yet either), I've yet to experience this as an automatic response to any given situation, however when I do apply it (even on the past stuff), it's extremely powerful.  That empowerment is what keeps me motivated to keep seeing the innocence in everyone and everything.

Go on, give it a try!

Real Love Baby!

A fascinating article by Martha Beck about real love that I stumbled upon.

You may find this article useful if you are struggling with someone who has left you. If you are struggling with family difficulties. If you have been the one to make the decision to leave and feel utterly guilty over it. If you are human at all or have ever been in any kind of relationship.

This article spoke to me, because year ago I had come to a place in my life where it seemed that if I didn't leave my marriage, my husband and I would not have the chance to grow and evolve in the way that would be most beneficial.

It's not that I didn't love my husband dearly, I could just see that we were suffocating eachother.

I was on a rapid growth path and he was scared to death about it.

I had the feeling that if we stayed in eachother's presence in this way that one of us would be very unhappy and I felt as though he would be the one to suffer. And I did not want that to happen. So I asked for a separation.

My husband is the most loving, generous and supportive man. Even on days when I think he is not... He is!

As much as I felt badly about having to make such a decision I also knew in my heart that I was doing the right thing for all of the right reasons.

Needless to say we did not separate, he (thankfully) refused to let go of what we had and all that we have been through. I accepted that and here we are happily on the other side of that raging river we thought was going to pull us under as we crossed it.

So things are never as they seem (that's a whole other blog post for another time).

This article about how to tell if it's real love, really affirmed for me that when we were going through that rough time I really did have his best interests in mind and that it reflected whole heartedly the real love that I feel for him. That it wasn't so much about me getting away from the marriage just to run away, it was about making a decision that in the end may very well would have changed our lives for the better.

I have many friends who are struggling with relationships, either with their children, spouses or extended families. It is the way of things at this point in our evolution. And each time we discuss these issues with eachother I can feel the complete love that these people have for their relationships, that all they truly want is what is best for everyone involved. Sometimes it looks like separation or divorce, sometimes it looks like sending someone away. It may not feel like love for the other people involved, but it is truly what is.

As Martha Beck states in her article that one myth we believe about love is that real love is about trapping people into staying with us, that real love looks like people who stay together in situations they are not happy in. This is a myth.

What about you? Is real love finding happiness in the struggle to continue within a relationship to keep the other person happy in their delusion? Or is real love looking deeply into yourself and asking the tough questions and stepping up and behaving in a way that respects the other persons needs and benefits the whole, even though said benefits cannot be seen at the time?