"...when you fall in love, you can't imagine anything but bliss. It feels so free to fall in love. You run ahead, arms wide open, and all the unloving parts of yourself get left behind. You wave goodbye and rush thrillingly into your perfect future. That's the moment of tasting the bliss, shall we say. Its energy can only last so long, however. As your sight clears and you realize that you must live in the everyday world, bliss is still possible. To have it, you must return to all those stranded parts of yourself that you left in the dust. Oh, how you wish that you didn't have to look at them again! All that ugliness. So much shame and guilt and humiliation that you never deserved the first time. Some stragglers are whiney and weak, like bedraggled orphans. Some are puffed up with self-righteousness and pride like cheap con men. There is anger and rage, anxiety and dread-- I couldn't name the countless bits of your normal self that haven't been uplifted by love.
But unpleasant as they are, if you go back and give them love, they add to your bliss. The journey of the return brings reconciliation. It brings a ripening. It brings acceptance of who you are. Because love isn't saying Come to me when you are good enough and I will cherish you forever. It's saying, Bring me everything you are, and I will make it worthy to be loved. The journey of return is what makes you real, and once it's done, you remain real forever."
-Deepak Chopra from The Daughters of Joy: An Adventure of the Heart
No comments:
Post a Comment