Tons of love to you sweet lady!

jason the bald guy

(1) Learning is a lifelong experience…when we close our minds to learning we close our minds to life itself.

Right on!

(2) Only in humility is my heart and soul open to the joy of experiencing others.

That’s also my truth.

(3) True love is about giving and nothing less. It is about giving love rather than desperately searching to be loved. It’s the only attitude that can begin to carry you through the agony of human limitation and mortality. Love that is based on giving, not receiving, is true and lasting. It is never fleeting and can never fly off into despair and hate.

This is also my learning.

I’d like to thank you for standing by me. What I’m going through is a rough part of my life journey. Rather than getting bogged down in despair about the symptoms I’m experiencing I’m trying to remain open to discovering more about the me within.

All of the best to you, Geoffrey.

The process of recovery has been one of getting back to the very root–tearing down the deformed and diseased branches and allowing the original root (where my real core beliefs can take hold) to form in the direction that nature intended.

What a great quote. I relate to the pruning of dead branches and getting down to the original root as I’ve done a lot of personal gardening myself.

Thanks so much for being my friend during this challenging time for me. I send you love and peace.

Sorry I’ve been away for a while. I’ve been thinking about you lots and hoping for your healthy recovery. I have great faith in you, part of me knows there will be no holding you down. I hope you’re feeling better.

I share many of your core beliefs too. I feel I will always be a work-in-progress. Perhaps I have another belief too…no, make that two! (Or even more).

The first is about learning. “Learning is a lifelong experience…when we close our minds to learning we close our minds to life itself”. Perhaps this is about getting older and a sense I have that the more I feel I know, the more I realise how little I know.

The second is about humility. Perhaps it might go that, “Only in humility is my heart and soul open to the joy of experiencing others.”

Now there’s a third…you knew there would be, didn’t you? *laughing* I have written a lot about love and the psychology of love. I suspect I have even kicked some arse in conventional academia on that subject! I do believe in love, but I believe in it as a conscious act of understanding and commitment, a combination of will and desire. This particular belief is deeply personal too. I recognize that others may not feel the same. Oh no! I have just realised that this is two beliefs so make that four now…The first belief is that the only kind of love worth anything is unconditional. I wrote on my blog:

“True love is about giving and nothing less. It is about giving love rather than desperately searching to be loved. It’s the only attitude that can begin to carry you through the agony of human limitation and mortality. Love that is based on giving, not receiving, is true and lasting. It is never fleeting and can never fly off into despair and hate.

It is a pity that true love is feared by most of us, and is hardly ever taught to anyone, children or adults.”

That is a core belief for me…But it’s not one I can say that I have realised despite a desire to do so. Last for the moment…I believe that it is only through the expression of love that we can experience ourselves as complete and fulfilled human beings.

I get a fair bit of stick for being an idealist…so be it.

I wanted to say a big thank you to you too. Thank you for introducing me to Melinda! When I first read her bio statement, I felt, “I have little in common with this woman…I wonder why?” I have come to realise that we have so much in common, it is mind-heart-boggling! Even our early troubled lives have so many parallels, albeit in slightly different milieu. Just amazing…one of the very best meetings I have made in this cyber-world, so thank you so much!

Take very good care of yourself, TT.

Geoffrey

I am not surprised that you and I share many of the same core beliefs.

My journey of recovery has allowed me the opportunity to really get to know myself and to form core beliefs. Because of the childhood and young adulthood I had, I was so fragmented that it was not possible. When I entered recovery, I was like a tree–one whose branches were twisted, deformed and rotten with disease. The process of recovery has been one of getting back to the very root–tearing down the deformed and diseased branches and allowing the original root (where my real core beliefs can take hold) to form in the direction that nature intended.

What a great list.

Melinda