Flexibility

It's easy to confuse control with love, to think that if love is real we will be in complete control when we are in it, that those we love should do/be exactly as our ego demands. When we confuse love with control we react incorrectly, we cause other people, our Beloved Ones, to act incorrectly also. I know this from unfortunate experience. And since love and control are not the same, there is guaranteed friction when we try to control our nearest and dearest.

Being controlled, or the feeling that others are trying to manipulate us is no fun either. That sort of emotional controlling is akin to hording, and it leads to disastrous results. Love, like the air around us is abundant, unlimited and there is no need to horde it, to cling with demands to love when we feel it. It's helpful to breathe deeply, there's no need to horde the air around us either.

We live in a consumerist society. We often think that by grabbing attention, time, breath, and holding it all tight to us we'll preserve it, prevent it from running away. Being miserly like that is tight and uncomfortable. It causes literal wrinkles, aging and bitterness.

The real key to living fully, passionately, to experiencing the love around us, is in our ability to be flexible, to revel in the love that is without grabbing for it so desperately. The conundrum is we'll be able to feel it, perceive it more accurately, when we don't clench.

Today I remind myself to be flexible.