I keep feeling the call to love more and more; to dig deeper, to press into unknown territories, to pass through the anger and the fear, so as to love from a new part of my heart. Some people and situations make this easy. Others make it down right challenging.

“Love them, anyway,” the small quiet voice in my heart said when I started to call the guy who cut me off in traffic a jerk. “Love them, anyway,” my heart reminded me, even though they have said the same thing like five times, even though I had already repeated it back to them already. “Love them, anyway,” my heart whispers, even though their answers are short and curt when I am working to help them. “Love them, anyway,” my heart beckons, it’s easy to love the easy-ones-to-love. Now to learn to love the difficult ones..,

This does not mean that I condone others’ behaviors. If someone is acting disrespectful, I can choose how I want to respond to protect my own integrity. It also means that I have the choice to not carry their names around in my head (or the labels I would like to give them), saying bad things and thinking bad thoughts about them. My thoughts about others also reflect the thoughts I have about myself…

So today, I’m learning to love others, anyway. Some people are easier to love at a distance. And yet, they need love just as much as anyone else – actually, I’d say the difficult ones need love even more. Hurt people hurt people. Love fills the wounds.

As I learn to love others, even with their faults and barbs, I am learning to love myself more and more, too.  So now, when I catch myself thinking what a jerk someone has been (and it had been happening more that I’d like to admit), I remove the word and do my best to see my interactions with them as a lesson…in compassion, for myself and for them. I also am sure to not call myself names, as well, lest the quote from Paul Valery (below) becomes reality.

Today, I set forth on a mission to learn to “love them, anyway.” It is my hope that you will join me. We will each grow in our abilities to love ourselves more in the end; each with a greater capacity for compassion. Let’s reverse the “hurt people, hurt people” fad by choosing to “love them, anyway.”

Yes, love them, anyway.

Namaste

Images: credits in images

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