What do we learn from living life, from our day-to-day experiences that challenge and stretch us?

Do we use our mistakes, our forgetfulness, our dropping the ball regarding our responsibilities and to-do lists to beat ourselves up, to cause ourselves to contract and play small? 

Or do we use ‘life happening’ as a springboard to truth, as an opening to a deeper knowing of what makes us tick, where our fur balls and strengths lie, and what we need to let go of to be more of our best self?

The choice is ours and nobody else’s.  No one else can pick us up and cause us to feel grateful for our experiences. 

No one else can assume responsibility for what we need to clear and release, for what we need to master and embrace in our lives.

When we are triggered, hurt, upset, or off balance, is our first go-to to make someone else wrong?  It’s just not helpful or useful to play the blame game because we are responsible for our own evolution and growth.  

No matter what someone else did or said, we choose if we react or respond. We are the ones that choose love or fear. We are the ones who make messes that we need to clean up.

We can have accountability buddies and life hacks to help to get us through what we find to be unpleasant, boring, or ‘no fun’. 

But in the final analysis, it’s our job to step up, break through any procrastination or reasons 'why not' and act, take a step forward and do something that moves us beyond the inertia that wants us to stay stuck.

No matter how we complain and moan, no matter what stories we tell ourselves or how we try to mask the feelings that need to be felt, loved, and let go, what is not serving us remains until we deal with it.  It’s there percolating in the background causing us to feel less than love, less than whole, less than who we truly are.

The first step is to choose to be aware when we are kidding ourselves, where we are not loving and embracing the truth.  It’s helpful to affirm, “I love the truth. Please show me the truth. I choose to know the truth.”

The next step is to be open to seeing, feeling, and knowing the truth.  The truth is not fairy tales or make-believe scenarios where all is rosy and perfect, where there is no tension, angst, or anxiety. 

We are simply choosing to be open to acknowledging and accepting how we feel with kindness, patience, and love.

We are choosing to be more of our best self.  We are choosing to open our mind and heart to the reality of our situation, and how we could mulch the fear we are experiencing into love. 

Maybe the truth is about seeing and acknowledging the bits that are selfish, rude, and impatient.  Maybe the truth is about accepting ourselves where we are at, how we presently are, warts and all.

It’s okay that the truth is not pretty. It’s okay that we need to work on ourselves to embrace positive change.  It’s okay that we are always a work in progress, that there is no ‘getting there’.

Whatever the truth is, knowing and acknowledging the truth opens us to healing and a new state of being that’s more calm, real, and true. 

The half-truths we tell ourselves, the smoke screens we erect not to see what’s going on inside of us, that’s what weighs us down, causes physical pain and disease, keeps us going around in circles and feeling small.

Admitting when we’ve made a mistake, said something stupid, or done something harmful is cathartic.  It helps us to feel clearer and brighter.  It’s liberating, setting us free from the chains that bind us. 

If we need to make amends, if we need to right a wrong, if we need to embrace a new way forward, that’s up to us as well.  Spirit/Source/God/The Universe cannot do that for us. 

Sitting around and hoping, praying, meditating, and visualizing is not going to create the change we desire.  It can support the change.  It can uplift us and help us to feel more whole. But, we need to take action on the ground, one step forward and then another.

Sometimes stepping forward feels scary like we’re stepping off a cliff with nothing to brace our fall.  In those moments, we must trust in the benevolence of the Universe.

She has our back. She supports us and places stones beneath our feet so that we may experience the consequence of our choices; so that we may learn how to follow our heart and make course corrections along the way. 

So that we may experience the joy of being 'love in action'.