Gratitude 02 … Partnership
Today I am grateful for all my Partnerships — both those relationships “tried & True” that continue to unceasingly provide me with support and guidance, as well as those pairings “fickle” that have provided me with amazingly difficult opportunities to “Love anyway” … And it is the latter upon which I focus my thankfulness now.
When one of our Life’s partners abandons us in any way (or even when we feel that Life itself has abandoned us), we come face-to-face with crisis; that physical and emotional shock-to-the-system that often brings with it intense pain & suffering. And yet, there is another way to respond to such trials … I have been told that the written Mandarin word for “crisis” is a joining of the symbols for “danger” and “opportunity”, and this is how we are allowed to see any great shift of relationship that is both unexpected & undesired — as a challenge that presents both the “danger” of slipping forever into the abyss of feelings of loneliness & unworthiness, as well as the opportunity to set those fears aside and Love the other (and Life itself) anyway.
To continue to care for a partner who is rejecting us; to appreciate the power of that rejection’s pain that has us clawing so desperately — yearning so intensely to be cared for and supported; to forgive those bystanders who (no doubt inspired by their own painful memories of being treated similarly) maliciously snicker over or callously turn away from our suffering — these are the noble choices available to us all in such times … And these are the choices that allow us to more vividly witness the wonders of the Universe that surround us even in such moments of emotional turmoil — miracles of the Beauty & Kindness that wait forever within; that wait so patiently for us to awaken from our self-focused stupor and once again laugh with unbridled Joy (or maybe even weep with unrestrained gratitude) for the miracle of Life with which we have all been blessed.
For it is this relationship – your Union with the All – that is your only true Partnership; a relationship that cannot fail; a partner who cannot ever reject or abandon you in any way.
And so, I climb to my proverbial mountaintop, take a deep breath filled with profound reverence, and let loose with a long & loud –
Thank Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
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