Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Letting It Be Enough

I heard the notion of “enough” discussed in a way that caught my attention recently. As I thought about it, it made me realize what a gift it is to notice that we have, in all things, enough.

We expend a great deal of energy working on accumulating enough – enough money, enough connection and intimacy, enough success, enough leisure and play and health. The list is endless. The quest seems to take on a life of its own, and the seeking to have becomes the focus rather than simply enjoying what we have. What we think and believe manifests in our experience, and so seeking reinforces the reality of lack.

I believe that what people feel most lacking in is love. The yearning may be unconscious and the sense of lack can manifest through many different thoughts, but what we really seek is enough love. The part of us that is disconnected from our true selves cannot imagine ourselves worthy of the amount of love that we want and need.

This can cause such conflict in relationships, when we get caught up in expectation about how someone should treat us, then we can feel that we were not loved enough. It can happen in the important relationships in our lives, or with perfect strangers. If I get ticked off at the driver who cuts me off on the freeway, it could be argued that the core belief behind all of it is that the stranger didn’t love me enough to treat me differently.

As with all things, I’ve noticed what a really small shift of awareness it is to move my thoughts from darkness to light, and from a lie to the truth. The ego lives to preserve our identity as individuals, and is in constant battle with anyone or anything that might seem to threaten us. But I can thank my ego for its concern and then pull my energy back from its worry, and say “it is enough.”

The love I have is enough, even when hurrying people act without thinking, or when others don’t put me at the top of their priority list. The connection I have with family and friends is enough, even when we are all busy and moving through life’s demands and challenges as gracefully as we can. The resources of money and time that I have are enough, and have always been enough, to provide me with the security and opportunity that I need to navigate this glorious life.

It brings to mind the words to one of Unity’s prayers:

The inexhaustible resource of spirit
is equal to every demand.
There is no reality in lack.
Abundance is here and now manifest

It’s all in how we choose to see it.

Thank you, God, that I can be worried over a perception that something important is missing, but then affirm that “it is enough,” and I realize that it is so.

May you know "enough" as the essence of who you are, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

6 comments:

  1. I think you make a good point. I might also add that when things are centered around me that is where my trouble starts. Then I am more concerned if things hurt "me" or how that other driver effects "me". Of course we all have by accident offended other drivers but we don't think about that. Like you said someone is not showing love to "me". Time to get our minds off of ourselves and on to a hurting world!

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    1. The more we feel disconnected, the more we focus on the "me." If we can remember that in all things we are one with each other then "Me" becomes "All." Thank you for your comment.

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  2. Sherry. I really apppreciate this. I think the ideal that is out there about love always puts a person at a disadvantage. Of course, I'm not enough because I'm not doing x,y, and z. I'll always come up short.

    Satisfaction. What's so wrong with being content with what you have?

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  3. If one can remember that at all times we are doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing and that all things are divinely ordered, we can then be satisfied with who we are and what we are doing. I appreciate your comment.

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  4. This reminds of times when I get a loving compliment and my ego receives it and thus blocks my heart from being fully nourished by the loving compliment. I take a pause, and allow the comment truly sink into and expand in my heart, and the ego magically melts away.

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  5. Getting our ego lovingly out of the way opens our lives to so much. Thank you for your heartfelt comment.
    Blessings,
    Sherry

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