Saturday, June 18, 2011

Goodbye to Chiswick

In a few days, we'll be saying goodbye to our (temporary) adopted hometown. It's been a wonderful year and a half (give or take), and we take with us many sweet memories. I know the road ahead looks promising, and we still don't know exactly what is around the next bend. Still, it's good to stop a moment and reflect on this era. When we moved here, we  didn't know what to expect in many ways. There were certainly many surprises, and most of them were delightful! Time will fade the memory of the less sweet episodes. Knowing what I now know, I think I can move forward into the unknown, assured that the next home will also be presenting us with moments of discovery and more memories to treasure.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Everyone adores me anyway

Every morning a "Note from the Universe" arrives to my inbox. They are almost without fail spot-on. Here's today's:

How adventurous would life be, Meredith, if you were "challenge free"? If you had the perfect body, perfect self-esteem, everyone adored you, and you won the lottery every Sunday?

Not.

Now what if, painful as they may temporarily be, you could choose a life during which challenges might arise whenever your thinking needed expansion, on the sole condition that every one of them could be overcome no matter how daunting they may at first seem?

Everything makes you more,
    The Universe


P.S. Besides, Meredith, everyone adores you anyway. 


How shocking! What a radical idea! Everyone adores me anyway. If you were to proclaim that, people might think you are being egotistical. There is something about adoration that says the object of adoration should either be young and innocent, or perhaps old and venerable. But there is a separateness implied in adoration. You might even say to adore is to idealize in some way.

I dare to say that we could all stand to adore each other more. Also, we could all stand to make adoration of each other a way to build community, to validate our essential oneness, even.
As we adore each other, despite any flaws or conflicts, we help each other to become more adorable.
Because really, what we are talking about is being lovable.
It's a tad more acceptable to say, "I am lovable" than to say, "I am adorable." Either way, the truth is that we are all that. Yes, even the ones who don't seem to be so. 
Therefore, today I say: Everyone adores me anyway. Even though I am flawed. Even though I don't get it right all the time. Even though I feel fear, or stress, or anxiety, or anger. 
The catch is, I aspire to adore. And I aim to adore all. 

P.S. I had been focusing on all the challenges that lay ahead of me in the coming months. This Note from the Universe helped me see that in a different light. Transitions can help us to open our minds. To grow and to go with the flow!