Oh, Jon, that was hard to read. I was really feeling for you, going thru all of that pain, which was, in my view, self-inflicted. You’re just being real — I get that… & sincere. There’s nothing like truth to help clear the air.

Everyone’s truth is different. Have you noticed? Just as you share your truth here, without dressing it up, applying make-up & such, others have their truth. Maybe sometimes they share it with you. Do they deserve to feel as they do?

Would you rather they lie, do the dress-up & make-up thing, while reserving their truth? If I disagree with something you hold dearly, will you hate me? Why, & what purpose does it serve?

One of my things is to celebrate our differences. The best gardens owe at least some of that to their diversity, to the differences in their plantings, how they set one another off to best effect.

Is the daisy wrong for her daisyness, the petunia wrong for her non-daisyness? Huh? I’m not religious, but I do believe in an energy I call Source, that others call God, but that word carries too much perspective-baggage for me.

Anyway, what would it be like if Source only created identical beings? Would that be cool? In some ways, yes — we’d all certainly do well at understanding one another. We’d know a lot about the others just by knowing it about ourself.

But, what about the spice of life, the excitement of learning new things, getting great ideas from people with other perspectives, new to us? Is the trade-off worth it? My bet is that civilization would be a bit of a dud, not much progress, little growth going on.

I’ve learned to be able to look back on the difficult stuff (of which there’s been plenty) & see how it helped me grow; each little circumstance was like a gift-wrapped present. The difficulty was the wrapping, but on removing that, behold — the gift. 😲

Anyway, just thought I’d share from another perspective — not the daisy one. I’d far rather a wild meadow filled with whatever popped up, a lovely garden with loads of variety. Organized variety is nice, but Nature does it better, just letting things be as they will, go where they go, nurturing them all.

When we change, the things we look at change. Perspective is the fulcrum of that change; ever available are endless different ways to look at whatever it is. Our mind likes to lock us in to the “right” way, to its view, but we’re so much more, so much greater than that, unlimited beings who never die.

We don’t execute the actor who plays a murderer in a drama, right? What if this 3D life is more a game or a great drama than something totally real? I see us, each one, as Source-in-form, the form being the body-mind thingy for this go-round. We’ve had lots of them & will have lots more to our heart’s content.

I think you’re too hard on yourself, & thereby too hard on those who don’t live up to your desires, your standards, your expectations. What’s killing you is the expectations, dear one — not the other folks. They’re just being real, being true to themselves, even when it’s hard.

The ones who seem to betray you — what are they going thru, inside or in their life? Their pain & suffering could have led them to betray themselves, which led them to make bad choices, to later betray you & others. We just don’t know…

You won’t be able to forgive them until you let yourself off the hook, which I hope you’ll choose to do. It takes time, but what else have we got to do, right?

Wishing you only the best, even though the best includes that diversity, along with a bit of pain. The suffering part is optional, which is such a relief to discover. It’s a choice we make, whether subconsciously or not. Take your power back, Jon. You deserve it. We all do.

~♥~

PS Didn’t mean to go on so long, but it was an inspiring article 😃