My biggest cheerleader for challenge is poison ivy.
Love Is The "BAM" Of Personal Expression
Nov 18, 2019
It’s so cool to have something so determined to help me learn to avoid things that harm me. Not! In truth, I have to say... the oils coming from this beautiful yet hairy plant are so dedicated to making me suffer that I’m just not understanding why God would choose to make such a vengeful thing.
It seems so sweet and vibrant…the poison ivy plant. The leaves are very light and unassuming. They are soft little leaves that change to such beautiful autumn shades as the temperature changes and we find ourselves embracing fall.
It climbs trees as well. It’s just so talented. It goes straight up and is agile and graceful in its ascent. Its roots are strong and deliberately attached to any tree it has decided to climb. What a strong little plant… so determined….so reliable. It intends to not only be a visitor, but a longstanding live in room mate to the forest. A survivor.
How Sweet.
And it appears to want to destroy me.
Today marks the end of the seventh week of a poison ivy odyssey for me. Woot! So many lessons… so many lessons. It started with the moving of rocks which had unidentified roots around them (Aka… Poison Ivy), progressed into a rather devastating rash of blisters, morphed into a nasty burn which a gorgeous bonfire helped me create, spread to a beautiful red blanket of hives, and ran it’s course into a shutdown of my immune system. I am now recovering from Shingles. Needless to say, I am more than willing to praise poison ivy from afar but that’s as close as I wish to go…forever.
It is an integral part of our forest, but I don’t have to mingle with it at parties.
In truth, not everything which is beautiful and awe inspiring is good for us. We may be drawn to these things but that does not make them healthy for us… or safe for that matter. And, although we are all of the same light, we are not necessarily meant to occupy the same physical space. This is true of our relationships with plants, and our relationships with other humans.
We are human. Let’s own it. As humans we find challenge in relationships from time to time. In fact, sometimes those challenges are evident in emotional rashes which turn to heart burns and spread into blankets of spiritual hives until we are too physically broken to ignore the symptoms. When the shingles start…it’s time for some major change of scenery cause the nerve rash is coming and everyone better watch out.
Wouldn’t it be great to see the challenges coming your way, honor yourself and the person presenting the challenge, and walk away with your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical bodies intact?
Find value in the people who challenge you. Look for moments to see their gifts. Look for ways to understand them. They are like the poison ivy plant. They are beautiful in their ways. They have traits which you might value in certain situations. Look for the love angle… always look for the love angle… living any other way can only lead to a general distaste for the light within you…. Because the light within you is shared by all those people and plants around you who are your cheerleaders for challenge. You are one.
Love them and Create Space.
When something is not healthy for us we do not need to expend our energy on hate or fear. We can respect. We can create distance. In fact, creating distance or space is an act of kindness and love… not just toward yourself, but toward others. No one wants to be on the receiving end of your nerve rash…. Trust me. We can and will share spiritual light but we do not have to share physical space. Find the distance which allows you to express love. Create space.
It is sometimes best to love from afar.
LOVE. Love you. Love them.
Then walk away.
If you embrace the understanding that YOU are vibration and light...
And all of creation is vibration and light...
And the material world is nothing more than vibration and light....
then you understand that “them” and even poison ivy are of the same light...
as YOU.
Loving others, because we are all of the same light, is loving yourself. Nice!
Creating space and loving from afar is an act of loving yourself - thereby loving the person who challenges you. Double Nice!
Love is the “BAM” of emotional expression. Use it! … and create space.
BAM!
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Author
Bets Danko
Bets creates courses and retreats which celebrate the unique qualities that make us individually amazing and communally empowered. She recognizes the need to support the mind, emotions, spirit, and physical body simultaneously to create a true state of inner peace and outward productivity.