Infect

When I saw today’s prompt, Infect, two blog topics popped into my mind, nasty oozing boils or sunshine and lollipops. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to where I want to go with my blog.  In recent days I read a great post by Leo the Nerdy Lion, encouraging new bloggers to find their passion, to find a voice and success will follow. He writes with humor, so I took it to heart.  Whether it’s to encourage writing, the arts or simply to be the best, we’ve probably all heard the saying “Find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” (Author Unknown from Quote investigator)

Infect – influence somebody’s feelings; to communicate an emotion such as enthusiasm or fear to somebody

I originally started writing this blog to vent and rant about politics and religion, but every time I start going down that path, it gets dark.  While politics and religion are things I’m passionate about, I don’t want to be stuck with the type of message.  Some days I may write about faith practices and social issues but generally,  I want to send out messages of faith, hope, love, and light in all shapes and sizes.  We all travel in that continuum of feelings from happiness to gloominess back and forth during our lives.  Where we stop or get stuck and which way we choose to go forward from there is so important.  

This morning I received a notification from an internet radio station with another subscription offer.  The gimmick was to put in the year of your graduation, and they will play all the top hits of that time.   Why not take a stroll down memory lane this morning?  “Everybody plays the Fool” was the first song and undoubtedly the one I could write about today.  I’d been blog surfing the last few nights, and among many creative, well-written blogs, I found a few broken hearts on the mend.  When I heard the song I chuckled, ain’t that the truth I thought.  Lots of us have been there.  Most of us manage to survive and move on in some manner. 

Today I want to infect you with hope, faith, love, and light.  Truly the most important is love.  Love yourself.  I’m not telling you anything new, you’ve heard it before.  I’m not talking about your looks or your style, your status – just you.  That presence inside that has love to give and wants love in return. Get to know that person.  Sometimes we walk around this earth, and we try to be everything to everyone.  We morph into what we think people want us to be and give what we think people want from us, but we don’t take time for ourselves to know ourselves, to love ourselves. 

When we make time to know ourselves, we can take a step back and look at our life objectively.  We are not afraid to ask the tough questions of ourselves or others.  We are not scared of the answers.  Whether in our personal lives or work, we all go into each relationship with certain expectations, certain assumptions.  We assume certain things are true for the others involved.  These assumptions can sabotage our relationships. Keep in mind that each person’s mind is coming from a different place.  Yes, you may have lots in common, but as I’ve said before our life experiences make us all unique in how we respond to specific situations.   You don’t know exactly what the other person is thinking or feeling.  Someone once told me “just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want, doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have to give.”   If there is nothing left in the box, it’s empty.  Don’t take it personally; there is nothing left to give.   

That being said, another wise friend told me: “enjoy each moment because you never know when the opportunity may come again.” Can you look back at your experience and find that there were enjoyable moments, maybe even moments that took your breath away?  Were there moments in which you gave love with all your heart and moments when you felt special and loved?  Keep that with you.  It is what it is, one particular moment in time and your life goes on.  The chances are that if you had that much love to give, your cup is still full and you have more to give.  There are different ways to share that gift.  Love has different shapes and sizes.  It may be another romantic relationship but don’t limit yourself to the possibilities. Look around; people are sharing love and addressing different needs all over the world.  Know yourself.

So why does everybody play the fool?  Why is it that fools fall in love?  Why do fools rush in? Some of it is hormones plain and simple.  The other reasons?  We believe in dreams and have faith in the future.

“To everything, there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Why does it hurt?  For the same reasons, because we lost our faith in our dreams when what we expected did not come to fruition the way we thought.  Change the pattern, re-write the story.   

“Do not cry because they are past!  Smile, because they once were!” (L. Jacobowski- courtesy of Quote Investigator)

 

PS- In addition to my Christian base faith, some of the ideas I have adopted in my life are from Dr. Miguel Ruiz books Four Agreements, the Mastery of Love and The Fifth Agreement.  You may recognize some concepts in my writing from time to time.