Super interesting woman. She’s run for president a few times and is a teacher of A Course in Miracles. If you Amazon search her you’ll find her books. “Mystic Jesus” is her latest, “A Return to Love” is another good one.
true about love ... it's challenging ... i just finished greg boyle's "cherished belonging," and so much of what he's saying is resonant with your post here. thanks for your work.
I like Marianne Williamson's ideas. And yours too, Glenn. Your very nicely written post makes me think of the about 4 years I was in a political email group that had more conservatives than either liberals and libertarians, and the libertarians usually sided with the conservatives. What I really appreciated about the group was that, after a while, I (liberal) understood where the conservatives and libertarians were coming from. I saw they were not bad people (for disagreeing with what was obviously right!), that they had well defined and reasonable moralities, and were, like me, wishing for a world that gradually moved toward goodness, as they understood goodness. After a while, I realized it was absolutely futile to think I (or any other member of the group) could persuade anyone in the group to change his or her mind. Because we all had good reasons for seeing the political world as we did. After 4 years, the group disbanded and reabsorbed into a much larger group, too large for emails (a political discussion website). I declined to join that. I had already learned my lesson of not assuming others are bad or indulge in bad thinking just because they disagree with me.
Ahh, this is it, isn’t it? People aren’t bad for simply seeing things differently than we do. I love it! Curiosity over arrogance seems to bring much more peace - thanks for sharing this, Tim. Grateful to be on the journey with you!
Lots of lovely ideas in this - thanks. Though I have drawn no conclusion, I wonder about being called to Love folks but no obligation to like them. While it sounds good, I wonder how it lands - it kinda has the feel of Hate the sin, Love the sinner. Maybe this posture is a great first step, and an invitation to explore "every thought we think we’re either adding to the solution or adding to the problem. Either our heart is opened or our heart is closed."
Yes, I feel the same way about the quote. I might rephrase it to "loving people without feeling the obligation to be in a relationship with them" ... ? There are some people, I think, who aren't safe for us to be in relationship with (ex. someone who has abused us in some way) and so we are free to love them from afar without being up close with them. Still spinning my thoughts on it, but that feels more on point to me. Maybe? Thanks for sharing, Mike!
The not being in relationship causes me a little more chaffing. Hahaha! I see relationship as an important part of love. Maybe, going back to Williamson, we boundary up, and with good boundaries we can love well, maintain relationships, and within the context of healthy boundaries it's possible to like them(?)
Just thinking - So in your example - a healthy boundary may in fact ensure safety and distance, and there is still relationship in a broad sense - connected through our shared past?
HA! Yes, I feel that too. Thank you for sharing. Phew. It's hard work, isn't it? I'm thinking of some specific relationships I've been in with various people who (multiple times) disrespected boundaries, stomped on my heart, and left me questioning my reality. They are people I tried again and again and again to be in relationship with, but at some point - enough is enough. Or the stories of friends who have been through similar situations, but the abuse is more physical than emotional/ mental. These days I send individuals positive energy, loving thoughts each day ... genuinely forgiving them, releasing them from my anger, and hoping for them to come to know themselves more and more. I also think of people I'll never be in relationship with - an extreme example is Donald Trump or Elon Musk or, take your pick of names. I can love them without being in relatonship with them; I can sit behind my computer screen and type hateful things about them or I can speak about the issues I have with love, and send them genuine, loving, hopeful thoughts/energy each day. Not saying I have the answers or what I'm saying is even the best way ... just where I'm at in my own processing as I consider my own past life experences.
"These days I send individuals positive energy, loving thoughts each day ... genuinely forgiving them, releasing them from my anger, and hoping for them to come to know themselves more and more." So maybe liking someone is doing as you suggest. It's much better than wishing their armpits are infested with the fleas of 100 feral cats!
So I need to reflect on what kind of bandwidth there is to Like.
Maybe relationship has bandwidth too. As I rail against Trump, Musk and our Canadian politicians, I recognize that I have some kind of relationship with them - if for no other reason than I grumble about them.
HA! That feral cat comment made me chuckle 🤣 // I realized this morning that ideas/thoughts can never separate from their creator.
We are thoughts, I think, in the mind of God and so we are always connected to God - no matter how "off the rails" we may go.
Likewise.
I think thoughts about people all the time - people on my street, Donald Trump, etc. My mind is always reeling! And those thoughts are always connected to me - they go out and touch the person I'm directing them towards all the while they take up residence inside of me.
Perhaps the goal is, as you said, to be aware that our thougths bring us into relatonship with people (even at a distance) and since our thoughts are our creation - we are always connected to them, they are always connected to us where they will plant themselves and take root in our hearts. And (again), perhaps, the goal is to become more and more aware of the energy behind the thoughts we send to others, realizing that that same energy will find a home in our own lives.
Don't know much about Ms. Williamson, I must admit.
Super interesting woman. She’s run for president a few times and is a teacher of A Course in Miracles. If you Amazon search her you’ll find her books. “Mystic Jesus” is her latest, “A Return to Love” is another good one.
true about love ... it's challenging ... i just finished greg boyle's "cherished belonging," and so much of what he's saying is resonant with your post here. thanks for your work.
Ahhh yes. I’m 3/4 through - huge shift in thinking. Thanks for sharing my friend, and thanks for your work too!
I like Marianne Williamson's ideas. And yours too, Glenn. Your very nicely written post makes me think of the about 4 years I was in a political email group that had more conservatives than either liberals and libertarians, and the libertarians usually sided with the conservatives. What I really appreciated about the group was that, after a while, I (liberal) understood where the conservatives and libertarians were coming from. I saw they were not bad people (for disagreeing with what was obviously right!), that they had well defined and reasonable moralities, and were, like me, wishing for a world that gradually moved toward goodness, as they understood goodness. After a while, I realized it was absolutely futile to think I (or any other member of the group) could persuade anyone in the group to change his or her mind. Because we all had good reasons for seeing the political world as we did. After 4 years, the group disbanded and reabsorbed into a much larger group, too large for emails (a political discussion website). I declined to join that. I had already learned my lesson of not assuming others are bad or indulge in bad thinking just because they disagree with me.
Ahh, this is it, isn’t it? People aren’t bad for simply seeing things differently than we do. I love it! Curiosity over arrogance seems to bring much more peace - thanks for sharing this, Tim. Grateful to be on the journey with you!
Lots of lovely ideas in this - thanks. Though I have drawn no conclusion, I wonder about being called to Love folks but no obligation to like them. While it sounds good, I wonder how it lands - it kinda has the feel of Hate the sin, Love the sinner. Maybe this posture is a great first step, and an invitation to explore "every thought we think we’re either adding to the solution or adding to the problem. Either our heart is opened or our heart is closed."
Yes, I feel the same way about the quote. I might rephrase it to "loving people without feeling the obligation to be in a relationship with them" ... ? There are some people, I think, who aren't safe for us to be in relationship with (ex. someone who has abused us in some way) and so we are free to love them from afar without being up close with them. Still spinning my thoughts on it, but that feels more on point to me. Maybe? Thanks for sharing, Mike!
The not being in relationship causes me a little more chaffing. Hahaha! I see relationship as an important part of love. Maybe, going back to Williamson, we boundary up, and with good boundaries we can love well, maintain relationships, and within the context of healthy boundaries it's possible to like them(?)
Just thinking - So in your example - a healthy boundary may in fact ensure safety and distance, and there is still relationship in a broad sense - connected through our shared past?
HA! Yes, I feel that too. Thank you for sharing. Phew. It's hard work, isn't it? I'm thinking of some specific relationships I've been in with various people who (multiple times) disrespected boundaries, stomped on my heart, and left me questioning my reality. They are people I tried again and again and again to be in relationship with, but at some point - enough is enough. Or the stories of friends who have been through similar situations, but the abuse is more physical than emotional/ mental. These days I send individuals positive energy, loving thoughts each day ... genuinely forgiving them, releasing them from my anger, and hoping for them to come to know themselves more and more. I also think of people I'll never be in relationship with - an extreme example is Donald Trump or Elon Musk or, take your pick of names. I can love them without being in relatonship with them; I can sit behind my computer screen and type hateful things about them or I can speak about the issues I have with love, and send them genuine, loving, hopeful thoughts/energy each day. Not saying I have the answers or what I'm saying is even the best way ... just where I'm at in my own processing as I consider my own past life experences.
Great stuff, Glenn.
"These days I send individuals positive energy, loving thoughts each day ... genuinely forgiving them, releasing them from my anger, and hoping for them to come to know themselves more and more." So maybe liking someone is doing as you suggest. It's much better than wishing their armpits are infested with the fleas of 100 feral cats!
So I need to reflect on what kind of bandwidth there is to Like.
Maybe relationship has bandwidth too. As I rail against Trump, Musk and our Canadian politicians, I recognize that I have some kind of relationship with them - if for no other reason than I grumble about them.
HA! That feral cat comment made me chuckle 🤣 // I realized this morning that ideas/thoughts can never separate from their creator.
We are thoughts, I think, in the mind of God and so we are always connected to God - no matter how "off the rails" we may go.
Likewise.
I think thoughts about people all the time - people on my street, Donald Trump, etc. My mind is always reeling! And those thoughts are always connected to me - they go out and touch the person I'm directing them towards all the while they take up residence inside of me.
Perhaps the goal is, as you said, to be aware that our thougths bring us into relatonship with people (even at a distance) and since our thoughts are our creation - we are always connected to them, they are always connected to us where they will plant themselves and take root in our hearts. And (again), perhaps, the goal is to become more and more aware of the energy behind the thoughts we send to others, realizing that that same energy will find a home in our own lives.
... So many thoughts.