BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR!!!

In my last post I told about working on my issues surrounding "spiritual arrogance". I also mentioned I was seeking to be more conscious of those moments where I found myself in judgment, criticism or feelings of "do it my way and you'll have a better life", etc.

Today, once again, I was with another friend of mine. We had been together a couple of weeks ago, and I was telling her the story about my goal of preparing myself to walk the El Camino next year. As I started to invite her to join me I very critically said "if you decide to go please leave your whiney self at home." Then I went on to explain about the time when she and I and our friend, Bernie, hiked up Mt LeConte in Tennessee and she whined the entire way up, much to my annoyance. The only time on the way up I felt happy and free to hike my kind of hike was about half way up the mountain and I said to both of them I was going to go ahead and hike and they could then follow at their leisure.

Obviously, my comment was, first of all, in very poor taste, and secondly, certainly didn't invite a response of "yeah, I'd love to come!!!" Today, as we sat down to watch a video, we had a discussion about my comment and she mentioned how hurt she felt afterwards. I knew as soon as the words came out of my mouth, I was wrong, and I told her this today. I apologized and mentioned my work this year about moving out of my spiritual arrogance and loving each person as they are, not as I would like them to be. My comment about her whiney self really is my work, not hers.

Once again, I am reminded of the phrase "be careful what you ask for". In this case, I'm asking to be shown where my work is, and my friends are more than happy to oblige me. I am so grateful to each of them for having the courage to confront me and each time for me to see a part of myself where I have work that needs to be done. It's so easy to point our fingers at others and yet, the real work comes in when we turn the finger around and point it at ourselves.

The picture above is my little buddy, Diva, who teaches me so much about love. If only we could develop the heart of a dog, what a wonderful world this would be!!!!