I believe in you.
Yes, YOU.
I know: chances are we’ve never met, but that doesn’t matter.
I. Believe. In YOU.
“How can she say that?” you might ask, and that’s an entirely fair question.
Gravity
All my life I’ve gravitated toward people. I study them. I feel compelled to make eye contact with and smile at them…to create a connection, even if it only lasts a moment.
Under typical circumstances, I assume first that people are friends. I imagine that they have good intentions, and that they are doing their best to make their way through the world. I may not understand them, their perspective, their culture or their behavior, but if I can assume the best, I often can find the best, too.
This pull, this gravity, is part of who I am and I wouldn’t change it for the world. This doesn’t mean that I truly know (I don’t!) and like everybody or that I want every person I meet to be my new best friend. That’s not it at all. In fact, I count relatively few people as “true” friends. But I do feel drawn to humanity, and on some level, I want to know, love and embrace all of it.
You Are Not Your Fears
So now perhaps you are wondering, “How can she say that? There is so much ugliness in the world!” Again, your question is well founded.
I have little patience for small talk or insincerity, which covers a wide swath of social, intellectual and spiritual incongruencies, including things that look and feel downright evil. I am repelled by it, and if someone’s “bad vibes” are very strong, I will go out of my way to avoid them.
BUT –
I believe that behind small talk and insincerity, behind small mindedness and self-righteous anger, behind false fronts and prickly exteriors, there is always fear pulling at our heartstrings and poisoning our minds. Fear tends to be loud, angry, cynical, boastful, denigrating and otherwise unpleasant and hard to ignore or embrace. But it isn’t real.
Fear grows like an invasive weed, planted in a moment of weakness, that threatens to choke out all of the native flora with it’s intrusive and inherently counterproductive nature. Fears planted by one generation grow and are often passed to subsequent generations. Generations later, we mightn’t even remember what the native vegetation looked like. All we know is the ugly invasive fears that we’ve been surrounded with all our lives.
I believe that your fear doesn’t make you who you are. Fear is merely a symptom. It’s an indication that something in our world – be it something very small and deeply personal, or something massive and of global significance – isn’t right and that we don’t fully understand it or know how to resolve it.
No. Fear doesn’t make us who we really are.
You Are Love
I believe that behind fear, there is love. Love can be hard to find in all of it’s quiet humbleness, but it’s there. It’s what we are made of, and it’s what we are made for. You are not separate from love. You are love.
It can be exceedingly difficult to see any love in some people. We can, perhaps, appreciate this when we consider the metaphor of the invasive weeds, in which love is represented by the native species. If the invasive weed, fear, has been allowed (or worse, encouraged) to grow for too long, unmanaged and unchecked, it could have smothered all of the native flora out of visible existence. But in the natural world, such damage can often be repaired with deliberate and focused effort. Perhaps the same holds true for the human spirit.
I believe that no matter who you are, where you’ve been, or who you might have hurt, at your core, YOU ARE LOVE.
Love Always Has Value
Love is, in an of itself, intrinsically valuable. It often doesn’t translate in dollars and cents or recognition and accolades, but love matters. It may, in fact, be the only thing that really matters.
In our infancy, love means comfort, safety and security and in our twilight years, it means dignity, respect, and comfort. We enter and depart from this life, dependent on the love and care of others to protect us and ease our way.
In between, love helps us develop a healthy sense of self, stay connected, learn right from wrong, maintain community, and create meaning. We give it and receive it. We cultivate it within ourselves. And we actively seek it. On some level, we instinctively, intuitively know it’s value.
Most – if not all – major world religions and spiritual paths point to love as The Answer. They tell us to love our Higher Power, and to love each other. Love is the rock on which humanity is built.
Without love, life loses meaning and we grasp at money, power and achievement to replace it. But those things can never fill the void, and like fear, they can invasively devour the time and space that’s meant for the one thing that is inherently native to you, Love.
Love is the only real treasure in this life.
I believe that you a precious treasure of unspeakable value because, you are love.
I Believe in You
So perhaps now you see. If I am to claim all of this as my truth, then I must believe in you. There is no other way.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t heed warnings from people that indicate that they’re living in a fear-based reality. It means that I must love them despite it, and possibly from a distance. And it means that I must never stop believing in the tiny spark of love that lies within them, buried somewhere deep inside their heart, yearning to grow but being suppressed by fear.
It doesn’t matter what your strengths and weaknesses are. It doesn’t matter what you’ve “messed up” or how. Whether or not you got the promotion is irrelevant, as is your likelihood of winning “parent of the year.” Your age, weight, education, income and net worth have nothing to do with it. None of that determines or even really influences my belief.
I believe
- That you are love.
- You are inherently worthy and valuable.
- You have incredible potential to do great things.
I believe in you.
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