No rules

Pain in your heart that seems caused by another can lead you understanding God's heart in your life. He loves you as you are. He asks that you love others, as they are. Not as you wish them to be, not as they treat you - but as He loves you - no conditions, no rules; Love freely given.

Your percieved pain, when you think someone has hurt your heart, is the birth of learning to love another as God loves - with no conditions. When you remove the conditions from your love the pain fades away.

Loving is not what hurts you, and not being loved by another is not what hurts. Trying to love and be loved only on your terms and not having those conditions honored by others hurts you.

But it is you that set the terms, the conditions, that you would love by....So you have hurt yourself.

""If you don't do this and do act in this way, then I will love you"" - that is what we do to ourselves. Love withheld for behaviors is not love - it is punishment and reward....You sully love when you use it in this way.

And it is human's rules you set to love by when you give conditions to be met, not God's. God's love has no rules to be met, no behaviors to be learned. Love is to always be given freely, not earned...not doled out like coins - GIVEN.

Letting go of your conditions frees you to give love, no matter what others do or how they love. Being human and having to relearn this is normal. We fall into thinking that we have to meet the conditions of those around us, family, friends, society, in order to be loved...We think again that we can not love one who wrongs us by human's rules or those around us will not understand.

Let them be confused but follow the light that is love in your own heart. Love anyway. No rules.

Accept that we hurt each other, that we can not live under others conditions. Forgive them the hurts done as you forgive yourself for being human and feeling a hurt was done.

Give and share love where ever you see it needed, with no rules, no conditions and love on with peace in your heart.

The gift of love freely given can not be wrapped, but it can be carried away in a heart with a smile and a hug behind it that will not be forgotten.

Never say you have no gift to give - your love for those around you IS the gift the never fades.

Choose to love

Each love you nourish in your life teaches you more about how to love. I try to learn to show love to others as I wish others would show love to me. When I exercise my ability to love gently and kindly, it nourishes everyone I touch but it only changes ME. It changes the way my heart feels.

When I am hurt and forgive it, I feel eased, released from the stress of being upset or emotionally in pain. I can't change how another person is feeling. I can only decide how I will feel.
When I can offer help it lets my heart smile. It is in how we interact with others, how WE each decide to act toward others, that the hope of a good world is brought closer to reality.

A seed can only grow to be like the flower is came from. You can loosen the soil, locate it in the proper amount of sun, keep the weeds away and feed it - offering your labor, your time and your care to the seed. Still, a zinnia seed will only grow to be a zinnia flower.

With your extra care, it will be the best and most healthy zinnia flower it can be, but it will still be a zinnia. What comes from your care of it is your increased exposure to sunshine, more exercise of your muscles, more contemplation of what you can do to help it flower better, thinking caring thoughts - YOU grow stronger for your care of the flower.

People can only be what the seed in them is designed to be - we can't change that, even in ourselves. But our loving care of each other can help us all be the best at being what we are.

It is YOU who changes from giving love to others. You learn to encourage, not discourage; to offer a hand up, not a hand out; to feed a spirit as well as a body. Your heart learns to see that they don't need to change, any more than you do - you just need to accept them as they are and yourself as you are.

Love them just as they are and learn to see what you can do to encourage them to be their very best self. Love yourself JUST as you are and know that each time you overcome your anger or hurt to forgive a friend that the world IS a better place. Be the best and most loving YOU that you can every day.

Lu 12:31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

If God is love and the kingdom of God is composed of love, then the kingdom is in each heart that loves - your heart and mine. Seek to love freely, to forgive easily, to show others how to love as you wish love would be showed to you here.

Plant your feet in love and expand the border of His Kingdom on this planet. His Kingdom come, His will be done. In His Unconditional and Divine Love I trust. Choose to love.

Shine on

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

The above was orignally written by Marianne Williamson not by Nelson Mandela.

When others don't understand why I care so deeply and give so much, I will not do less to suit their view of life.

I know sometimes we can only love a little from our broken and sad hearts. I will not care less to "match" their level of love. I will keep sharing my love so there is more love in the world.

I want to show them that even broken and sad hearts can learn to love and trust again and that caring for each other is caring for ourselves.

Forgive me

Why is it so HARD to remember - "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, [b]do ye even so to them[/b]:....matthew 7:12

Some don't return my phone calls, some don't come when I think I need help. Some can't soothe me when I hurt. Some say unkind things about me when I'm not there. Some have taken things from me without asking. Some don't show up when they say they will be over. Some hurt my feelings with words or actions. Some just seem to be mean to me.

To do what makes me feel I am on the right path and get the warm fuzzy feeling inside, I have to remember we are each just human. I have done these things to others in the past. I have to forgive the hurt I am feeling and return only loving attention and care.

I don't find it easy. Striking out when we hurt is built into the body as a defense mechanisim. It shouldn't to be built into our hearts. We can look at the hurt done to us and realize that, in many cases, it is our sense of importance and pride that is hurting. Is that really worth losing a friend over?

I can no longer return tit for tat. I'm just not going to get into a lose-lose situation again if I can help it. You do what you need to do - I will answer when you call, return your calls, come when you need me, share what I have and try to give what you ask me for. I will continue to help where I can, to fill the needs I see around me....I will try to soothe hurts, ease hearts, offer caring attention....even if that is NOT what you have shared with me -

Why? Because I believe we are all in this together - we are ONE - each a part of the whole. If I hurt you I am hurting myself. I want to love myself. I want to love all of myself. That means loving you, too.

The book doesn't say 'do unto others AS they do unto you', it says to do what you WISH they would do for you...

I wish to be loved. To have help when I need it. To have food when I am hungry. To have companionship when I am lonely. To have what I need when it's needed...I wish to be loved by others and to love them freely.

I can't do that and count the hurts done to me. I am letting go of the hurts and only counting the love. I will count the smallest sign of loving care and watch as those small, loving actions increase.

I believe Love is all there is. Why would I try to track and remember things that are "notlove"?

If you encourage the smallest kindness of others and offer only kindness, it will change the world.

Maybe I won't be able to live up to the ideal every day. I'm human. I can't get vengeful and vindictive and want to hurt someone back....but if I can slow down even one minute and think to try and let the hurt flow over me instead of through me, I am slowing notlove and encouraging Love....I gotta try.

So do unto others as you WISH others would do unto you - feed them, house them, hold them while they cry, laugh with them, and love them.

Forgive them for being humans, love them for being part of your life forever.

Day is Done

By fire or candle, light was labor. You were sparing with it. There was no running down to the gas station for more propane or to the neighbors for candles...The light went OUT when the sun went down. And we let it.

After a day of hauling wood, cutting sod, feeding animals, and teaching kids how to do the same, the sun went down. Readings or recitations by firelight were entertainment and schooling. Singing was a release of the heart after a day of exercising your muscles...break time. If it was too dark to read, too dark to mend harness, we gathered together and told each other stories.

Families didn't have limitless supplies of acholol or drugs to 'relax' with. Forget TV. They found their own ways to unwind at the end of the day.

We are losing the art of family relaxation. We all need it; it's hardwired into almost everything on the planet. We need the dark. We need to rest.

Even out plants grow better when given dark time in their day. Too much light makes them spindly and thin. Our animals produce better when they are given "night" in their barns.

There is no prize for "Most Exausted Human".

There is a prize for families that relax together. That time of almost sleepy but still awake that we can share builds a bond that lasts. You don't have to do anything but be there and communicate with your family. Make it "Joke of the Day" and everyone tells one. Or just sit in the yard and stare at the consellations together.

Find a way to spend a few minutes each day glad that the night is come and day is done with your family. Even if it is the panacea of TV, snuggling down together to watch it makes the bonds between you stronger. It helps you all rest better knowing there are those who care who are with you each night.

Kick back and party, play cards, sing, tell stories - RELAX - but do it together.

"Col 2:2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love ........."

How may I help you?

I care about those around me. I try to show it. How do you know it's needed if you aren't the one who needs it?

When I care about others I often see things that I think need filling -- from sugar bowls to hearts. I think it's needed because I have needed it before. A gallon of milk, a gas tank, a hug, a quiet talk...I can only recognize "need" as I have known my own needs.

There are some needs we all have and can't mistake. There are some needs unique to each of us.

How do you know you are filling what's truely needed when it's not you who needs it and it's not a need you have had?

I don't. I can only offer to fill the needs as I see them.

I'm really filling the needs [i]I know[/i] in those I meet; My needs. I can only hope it's close enough to what they really need that it helps them.

Can you fill a need if you have not known the need?

I think we can. I think we can see another's plight and aid them even when we don't understand why they think they need something we have never needed so badly. It's not a need you have had, it's not important to you, but you reach out to help them fill it...I think that is love; To help another be all of the best that they are.

I need to love and be loved. I see that as a need in all of us. Whether it truely is a need or not, I see it that way.

When I see someone who needs to be loved it touches my heart. My heart is ripped when I can't fill that need. When all expression of caring is denied by them you can't soothe their hurts. They will not let others love them.

When I see someone who has stopped loving, it makes my heart ache for them. Denying yourself that need, to me, is the same as standing in a blizzard naked. To stop loving others is to kill something in yourself, as I see it.

So the basic reason I fill the needs around me is because I NEED to love. To show people they are loved is secondary, really.

That's a hard thing to say. I want to be caring for others to show them there is one who cares for us all, but I know now it's my need to give love that I am filling...

When I fill anyone's need, I am filling my own....I'll keep reaching out to each I meet. Now I think I understand why I do.

Where are you going?

Joh 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

You can't bear them now. Interesting phrase. He would not hurt their hearts further or load them down with things they did not need to know yet, but He wanted them to know He would be sharing more thoughts with them later.

What he had to say NOW was hard enough to share with them. The rest could wait.

Joh 16:16 A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.

Joh 16:18 They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith.

They didn't understand. He is telling them he's going to die, but he calls it "you won't see me and then, after a little while, you WILL see me...He SAYS he doesn't die, just go where he can't be seen.....but "He'll be back."

Joh 16:20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

You will be sad and upset, but it will be a good thing that I have died to this world...and you will understand it - later.

Joh 16:22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

Now He knows He has made his friends sad. They understand he's going to die...and - like us - they STILL thought it meant "dead". Even though they had seen him revive the dead.....so they know that the spirit can be returned to a body....the SPIRIT didn't die.

He tries to comfort them by saying He will see them later and you will never miss me again...but they probably didn't believe Him.

Dead is dead, right?

So when people don't believe me I know I am in good company.

What happens when we "die"? Where do we go? Can WE come back? He tried to tell them.

I try to tell you... http://1way2see.com/thebook.html

You won't die. You change, but you are alive and loving on. I can't say I will return here to see anyone after, but I will say I'll be watching and loving you and that I'll see you when you get there.

Next time I will take another swing at grace. It's why I believe that each one of us will meet later.

Truth

I've covered this before but it comes back over and over. The Divine Love is so pure it feels like liquid truth...I can't say it better.

Truth is so much a part of love that they can't be separated.

When you use untruths to those you love it twists something in you because YOU know it is not truth.

The other person now has false information to work with between you. They believe you. Your lie is their truth.

Now the balance is off between you but you are the only one who knows it.

When all the lies you have told come together in the day you need the truth between you they are hurt, your love together is hurt badly and you have shown yourself as untrustworthy.

Really - is it worth looking perfect to lie?

We're not perfect. We make mistakes. We hurt each other. But if you keep it all in the daylight, nothing to hide, it can be dealt with between you.

I'll find the verses that go with this later, it is in the book.

But I am glad I have kept what I do and where I walk in the light. I have no shame and nothing to hide in my life now.

I have done things in the past that shame me. I like walking without that in my life.

It's hard to be honest. And it's hard to find honest words that don't hurt. But it's loving to be truthful with each other. It's not loving to lie.

I gotta go with the love.

It is what it is. It's all good

It's hard for me to accept what I know is a truth sometimes.

It's all good.

It doesn't always look that way from here.

When I find myself trying to "make life better" for someone I have to be very careful to just take care of the right things and leave them to chose their own way through life. Whatever they are doing in life, it's what they are needed as here. What they are is not just what we percieve them as, but perfect for the need that they will fill in this life.

We don't often see the perfection of ourselves. We almost never see the perfection in another. Trained to look for the "lacks", we neglect the fine qualities in each other and ourselves.

Each of us choses how to live while we are here within the circumstances we find ourselves in. Hard times make for hard choices. But we keep walking through life. We get up from adversity over and over. We presever. Even when we just hide under the covers from life for a time, we are preserving ourselves for the time we will be needed. Humans are amazing survivors.

Every one of us, as we are, are alive. Some of us are living and some of us are just existing until we can find the strength to live again. But we are making it - with a little help from our friends.

We can make things better for one another. A phone call, a cup of sugar, a ride - all small things. But they show we care and the one we touch knows they are not alone. Maybe sometimes all we can do is love each other where we stand and offer our tears. But we care and we share. People are good.

Accept people as they are. Love them as they are. Don't expect them to be what YOU think they should be. They are what they are and it is all good.

Give lovingly, but walk your own path and do them the great respect of letting them walk theirs.

The hearts are his to heal. The spirits are His to waken. Our only task is to love 'em while we've got 'em.

You're not lost

Where you are is where you belong right now. It's not easy to see the point in where we are standing when it's hard, hurtful, lonely or depressing to us. But it is where we are needed.

When we are true to ourselves we are walking for him. Truth is love. Love is God. God is Love. We may feel our response to a situation is harsh, over the top, or even hurtful to another. He will always use the truth of us to show His truth to the world.

Your heart is known and treasured just as it is today. The power of His love does not need physical strength or communication skills to show His love is real here; It only needs a heart that loves and cares, like His heart loves and cares.

He knows what we see as our imperfections. He knows what we see as our negative feelings and thoughts. He knows each heart that He brings in touch with another heart and will guide you to where you are needed and what He needs from you He will show you in a way you will understand.

Where ever it is that you are today, all He asks is that you love the ones he brings you. Show them loving care and kindness He has shared with you, and that is all you are asked to do.

Sometimes that loving care requires harsh words of truth. Other times it only needs the touch of a hand to a shoulder. Words are unneeded. However you express your care and love to another, JUST the way you express it, is why He has brought you to where you are.

You are never where He is not there. You are never blind to His call if He needs you to see and hear Him. He will open your heart and give you the inspiration you need to share that love.

When you are hurt and confused, stop. Look around you. Listen to your heart. When you find what you really want to do, it will be what He has put in your heart. Then do it, knowing He has it all covered and that you are just the right heart to do what He sees is needed. Trust Him to always know more than you do, see further than you can and love all the hearts involved.

You can be in the middle of nowhere, with nothing at hand and no one there and there will be a reason you are standing there. You are not lost. He needed you there, for just that length of time for a reason.

You are not lost. You are not forgotten. You are not ever out of His heart. We can't always see it from here, but the love is always holding you. Cling to that love and walk your days in peace.