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Dear Ones – Thought it might be worth sharing this one again, as many of you he…

Dec 24, 2014

Dear Ones –

Thought it might be worth sharing this one again, as many of you head home for the holidays!

Have a wonderful time with your beautiful, insane families, everyone!

(And remember: Breathe, smile, be grateful for the people who brought you life, it's all just a mysterious dance, and never talk about politics.)

Big kiss,
LG

https://huff.to/1HFI9Eu


Remember This When Your Family Pushes Your Buttons This Holiday
https://ift.tt/hFWySe
They may get under our skin, but best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert says there are some things that only family can teach us. "I had a great teacher in India who said to me, 'If you think you're spiritual and evolved and enlightened, go h…

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

Dear Ones — This one caught my heart: A mother of four, who just left an abusiv…

Dec 23, 2014

Dear Ones —

This one caught my heart: A mother of four, who just left an abusive marriage, and is starting over right before Christmas, penniless. I donated to this beautiful little family, and couldn't help sharing her story here.

So much love to you ALL – and to anyone who is suffering and struggling right now, know that our prayers and thoughts are with you.

Love,
LG


Click here to support Ashley's Christmas Wishes by Kendra St. Hilaire
www.gofundme.com
‘Tis the season for generosity, and we have a friend in need! As you are probably aware, Ashley has been through a heck of a lot this year. After so beautifully spending many years growing and nourishing her beautiful babes, her own body has taken a toll and she’s suffered more surgeries and com…

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

MERCY. Dear Ones – I’ve been thinking about the word “mercy” a lot lately. It…

Dec 23, 2014

MERCY.

Dear Ones –

I've been thinking about the word "mercy" a lot lately. It all connects with the larger conversation on forgiveness that we've been having on this page recently, but mercy is specifically on my mind right now.

I've been thinking about how the must judgmental and critical people I've ever met also seem to be the most self-hating. This is not a genius observation for me to have made (it's usually pretty obvious, right?) but it's profoundly true.

Haven't you seen that?

Haven't you noticed how people who are incapable of extending mercy to others also seem to be be incapable of extending mercy to themselves? They hold the world, and themselves, to a some sort of impossibly high standard of judgment, and the world (and themselves) always disappoint. You can see it in their faces, which are alway tight and hard and angry. It's a face that says: "Everything is wrong, everyone is terrible, the world is garbage…and I am the worst piece of shit at the center of that garbage world."

(It's the peculiar narcissism of self-loathing, by the way, that always puts you right at the center of a garbage world.)

I've stood in that place, too — when I was deeply miserable. Nobody was good enough for me, back in the days when I detested myself. And what I hated in other people was usually just an amplification of what I could not bear about ME — namely, their human vulnerability and their fallibility. Their fragility reminded me of my own, and I couldn't stand it.

Self-disgust turns people brittle and mean, and that meanness then radiates outward and contaminates everyone around them — and nobody is exempt.

As I slowly learned how to treat myself with care and tenderness and sympathy, I could become more caring and tender and sympathetic toward the other struggling souls around me…for we are all just struggling souls. Again, in their vulnerability, I could see my own — but now I could regard that vulnerability with empathy, rather than scorn.

At this point in my life, the evidence seems clear: If you cannot show even a modicum of mercy toward yourself, then you will never be able to be express full human mercy toward others, either.

This is perhaps the strongest argument I have for learning how to come to peace with yourself — for healing your wounds, and learning how to regard the softest and weakest and most shameful parts of yourself with gentleness and compassion. If you can practice mercy upon yourself, then gradually that mercy will radiate outward to the rest of us. And that will be the end of Judgment Day, every day.

All of which is to say: It is not selfish, to learn how to be loving toward yourself: IT IS ULTIMATELY A PUBLIC SERVICE.

ONWARD,
LG

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall