“If every single person who has loved you in your lifetime were to light up on a map, it would create the most glittering beautiful network you could imagine. Throw in strangers you’ve been kind to, the people you’ve made laugh, or inspired along the way and that star-bright network of you would be an impressive sight to behold. You’re so much more that you think you are. You have done so much more that you realize. You’re trailing a bright pathway that you don’t even know about. What a thing, what a thing indeed.” Donna Ashworth
This brief but powerful passage by Donna Ashworth invites us to pause and reflect on our experiences and the meaningful ways in which we connect throughout our life journey. I saved this quote a while ago, and recently stumbled upon it while looking for something else. As I re-read her penned words, so many gorgeous images arose. However, I was on a mission and continued my quest to find that something else, and I made a mental note to revisit it later.
Those transformative images continued to swirl in my mind's eye and I thought to share them with you but when I returned to my archives, I searched high and low, all for naught. Oh, the foibles of being human! Does that ever happen to you? Determined, I was not giving up and I spent an inordinate amount of time surfing the Internet. Wonder of all wonders, even with my hazy recollection and an author’s misspelled name, I finally discovered it again.
Hmm…but it appears I’ve digressed. Just imagine, there are so many points of light, of love and connection throughout our lives that continue to expand out across our universe lighting up the night sky! This is the infinite power of Love.
So, on a day when that internal critical voice is echoing in our head we can acknowledge our difficult emotions, allowing them and offering our kind presence, and then with curiosity, ask what does it need and lovingly respond (RAIN Tara Brach teachings) as we remind ourselves of the vast far-reaching impact of our every loving thought and gesture.
With love and gratitude for all that is, for the darkness that holds the light, for the Divine Light that is in each of us and helps to guide our way, for the beauty and heartache that manifests in living, for the wounds that teach amidst a love that binds and heals, and for impermanence that awakens us to what really matters in our lives.
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Liz Sorensen Wessel
Ashworth’s quote is From ‘I wish i knew’: https://amzn.to/3JVMJlZ
