Love Everyone.

My little Christmas friend dropped off a note... a note of compassion. a note of service. The note was simple. it brought with it no instruction manual. no complex packaging. no batteries required. it was what it was.

Love Everyone.

Simple. Direct. To the point.

I immediately thought. impossible... how could I love everyone... what about all the greedy people that espouse their singleminded nuttiness onto the rest of us. and what about all those people who judge others and don't practice a love unto others motto. What about all the people I don't like. How am I going to love them? How am I going to love all the people who are suffering, who are ill, who are diseased? blah, blah and blah...

As I let my brain parade through all the ways I wouldn't be able to Love Everyone. It occurred to me (even without a manual) that I wasn't being asked to question the guidance. I was being asked to be in service.

So.

I stopped. I stopped and changed my perspective.

Love Everyone. is to love the wholeness. is to love the greedy along with the gracious because in loving both, I can create space and support a place of love and open-ness. I can be with what is and not try to change it. not try to adjust it to my way of thinking. I can let go of my ego. And get with the we. and in doing that. I can...

Love Everyone. Effortlessly. Because I'm not trying. I'm being.

Easier said than done. I wasn't quite set. yet.

As the glow of the message spins into the day in, day out practice, fear creeps in and the whole thing becomes overwhelming.

What if I slip up, what if I can't do it, like when someone does something evil in front of me, and I say something unkind and my heart closes to that person and I'm not loving. Not only that, everyone is worse for my failure.

Wow. a lot of unnecessary pressure just burst on the scene. I can only do what I can do. (Clearly my fear is a bit of a drama queen) So. there is only one thing to do...

Embrace my fear. Invite it in. Let it perform. Acknowledging and applauding the fact I would never be perfect.

I allowed myself to know, when I slipped (as I most certainly would). It would be okay. Because in the next moment I could release that closed heart. And be with what is. Open. again. Free from the hamster wheel of never achievable perfection, free from my expectations, my judgements.

And in that accepting I watched my fear drift away.

Clearing the way to embracing...

The wholeness and spontaneity of the moment.

In that truth, the gift of being shows up to guide me further along my path of being open and loving to that moments power. whatever form it takes.

Love Everyone is that wholeness.

So I thank you, my little Christmas friend, for your message, for today, for tomorrow, for the yesterdays and all the ongoing gifts in each moment that blossom, flourish and release so the next gift can occur.