Who aren't you talking to? Meditation for 7/22

Murrell's Inlet; SC

"Those who give have all things; those who withhold have nothing."  - Hindu Proverb

“Money is like love.  It slowly and painfully kills he who withholds it, and enlivens the one who turns it on his fellow man.”  -  Gibran

      As I was walking along the beach the other day I overheard and argument between two children.  It seems that they were fighting over a toy bucket and shovel – common enough toys for the beach.  Surrounding them were numerous other toys – kick-boards, floats, balls and the like.  But they both wanted the shovel and bucket to themselves.   When the larger child refused to allow the smaller to have them, the comment made was: “I don’t love you anymore.  I am never playing with you again.” 

     How often do we threaten to withhold love?  Worse yet, how often do we follow through on our threat?  How do we handle it when others threaten us this way?  First of all, unconditional love does not know alienation or separation – it remains regardless of circumstance.  So we can safely say that where ever love is “with-held” it didn’t exist in the first place.  And of the times in our life that there was a grievance with one who we were close to before a wall developed, how often is it that the “incident” over which the split occurred was as equally trivial as the children with the bucket?  I heard a story not long ago about siblings who have not spoken to each other for years after a fight broke out at the funeral of their mother.  It seems both daughters wanted to do the make-up on the corpse in her own way.  But I heard another story about a man who had alienated his father for years – a man who blamed every struggle in his life on his father.  This man forced himself to go through his life and straighten out all his relationships – and when he took an honest look at his father he realized his father had always done the best he could.  He realized that it was he who had withheld love because his father did not fit the imaginary image of what he thought a father should be.  Since this realization, he approached his father and apologized for the years of short-sightedness, and the relationship since has been a blessing in his life.

     Life is short.  We don’t have the time or the energy to both fulfill our purpose on this earth and carry grudges.  We can either nurse the grudges and convince ourselves we are victims or we can humble ourselves, approach those in our life whom we have had grievances with and set them right.  And in the process, whether we think we were right or wrong, we free ourselves.  And as to one who threatens to with-hold love from us?  We can view them with genuine sympathy, because the impoverished soul has no idea what love is in the first place.

Today, may I be genuine.

Have a great Tuesday !!

David

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