ACCEPTING

Read this backwards, like you would your email.  It's
Wow! 

This is very insightful.  Many times, I have discounted people I thought were "too . . ."  or ". . . Not enough . . ."   What a tragedy.  I have grown much wiser today, but I am sorry for all those people I have missed getting to know along the way, because I thought them somehow too unlike me.  The Waspy Brown family, my own, was too much like this.  It is the only criticism of them I think I have.  The longer I lived away from them as an adult, the more I saw the error of their ways.  And so were the Ballers constantly judgmental, even to the extent of being clanish about it -- if you weren't a "blood relative," you were automatically spurned or thought of as less than a bonafide person.  I notice, too, that many of us get MORE judgmental the older we get.  Or maybe we just get cranky.

People I never thought I would know, let alone accept, have enriched my life and opened my eyes to simple lessons about "how people BE."   My father was not as much like that as my mother and others in the family.   Still today, I recall how he would be impressed by "unlikely" people -- I knew he liked someone very much when he would say, almost reverently of them, "He is the salf of the earth."   Though he was one of the smartest men I believe I have ever known, he was also one of the kindest, accepting people I've ever known.  It is this about him that will forever stay with me. 

I suppose this can be judged by others as a fault - to be so accepting of other people - as if by not being "discriminating enough," we become tainted by that which we do not understand or accept or even fear.  That we somehow lower the standards of rightness through acceptance.  But in the long run, I think it can help us more than it can hurt.  I think I understand, too, why people do it:  they are afraid.  If there is one characteristic of modern people, I think it is that they are afraid.  Afraid of what?  Fill in the blank, but mostly, I think they are afraid of their own potential for reinforcing the good in this world.

I really enjoyed this one, Denise.  Thanks xox, Sharon


-----Original Message-----
From: Denise Rubin [mailto:rubind@ride.ri.net]
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:25 AM
To: Daily Meditation :
Subject: envy

Eknath Easwaran's Thought for the Day

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June 25

It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.

-Saint John of the Cross

Most of us cannot help comparing ourselves with others, at least now and then. In fact, this has become so entrenched today that in order to have self-esteem, it seems almost necessary to say, "I am better than he is, so I am good." As long as we compete with each other and compare one with another, a certain amount of envy is inescapable. It is the very rare person who is completely free from jealousy.

But as our spiritual awareness grows, we will know that the Lord is present in everyone and that there is a uniqueness about everyone. The truly spiritual person never tries to compare himself or herself with others, or others among themselves. I have never been able to understand the compelling phrase, "keeping up with the Joneses." It does not matter very much whether I keep up with Tom Jones or anybody else; what is important is to keep up with myself by making my today a little better than my yesterday.

We can keep this ideal before our eyes by not comparing ourselves to others, remembering that all of us have complete worth and value because the Lord is present in us.