One of the most important principles that has guided me well – when I’ve remembered it – is the idea that if I want anything to change, in myself or in someone else, I have to first approach it with acceptance and love. 

 

       Here is a passage from Mark Nepo that resonates with me.

 

 

Looking with Love

 

“Our best chance to find the Oneness of Life is by looking with love into everything and everyone we meet.  Looking with love is a form of saying yes.  We give birth to everything we look at with love, including our own soul. This shining forth is the one gift we’re born with that is always near, though we often lose sight of it or lose faith in it. …

 

“Like sunlight, looking with love is a warm presence that helps everything looked upon find its strength.  The presence of love is how questions grow under the moon in the open patch of yard; how in our pain we suddenly find a way to create peace; how being with each other, in the midst of great difficulty, creates a sense of home.”

 

Mark Nepo, The Endless Practice, p. 65.