Is there anyone who…well….bugs…you? We all have one. You know who I mean: that person. You just came from yoga class, all peaceful and blissful without a care in the world. There she is—the office gossip whose voice elicits a cringe. Or that other one who doesn’t eat lunch with you; she holds court and doesn’t stop talking. Ever. Or, uh oh, there he is—the president…oh, that man!

Well, now that I’ve started down that rabbit hole, I’ll continue for just a minute. While I do get Trump’s trickster energy, the fact that this fellow is our president (fortunately, he’s not the leader of the free world—that’s gone to Angela Merkel) is just…incomprehensible. It feels like such a backward step on the planet. Maybe he’s just the out picturing of the hidden darkness we all carry, to be loved and lit up? Maybe so many others carry this, too, and it’s all up for healing? Do we just continue to shine and love?

My reframing of what he’s here for is that he’s breaking down the old system so we can build anew. My greatest prayer is that some of the things he’s breaking down are built anew before too much harm is done. Actually, if we just take a look at him, it’s very apparent the greatest harm he’s doing is to himself.

I wrote in another blog about how a spiritual teacher of mine once suggested that when someone really annoys us, we just look at him or her through the eyes of love and send them love. We can even do that with people on TV or in the news feeds. I sometimes find myself being triggered by a particularly detestable shot of Trump or Kim Jong Un—and then I stare at the image until he literally transmogrifies before my eyes…..often into a scared little boy with an aching heart. More and more since I wrote that, Trump seems to be an exhausted old man, even becoming unhinged right before our eyes.

 

A dear friend of mine would often refer to the time we were having tea in the ethers and arranging the lessons we wanted to learn this time around. Oftentimes it could be forgiveness, and unfortunately, that takes someone or something to forgive. Yuck! Can’t we just forgive and not have to go through the something-to-forgive part?

It’s easy to love the loving person. The real work—emotional, spiritual, mastery—is in loving the one it’s hard to love. But we mustn’t withhold love from people because we think they’re unlovable….We love them because Love is who and what we are. And Love will lift them—and us—up.

 

Not making light of anyone’s hardship or heartbreak, it’s definitely the tragedies that temper the soul, that make us rise. It’s not the easy days that define us, although we might have more and more easy days the wiser (and less attached to outcome) we get. More wisdom comes in the more we let go of the struggle and just surrender. “Surrender…..to the love,” as a songwriter friend sings.

 

One time I found myself saying (inside), “Okay, I have the spiritual world down. What do I need to do for more success moving around in the 3D world?” The answer came quickly: love more. Wait, before you roll your eyes! It’s nowhere near as obvious as it seems. Love more….with every breath, every sip of water, every thought, every action. And while we’re at it, love more again….with every bite of food, every conversation, every movement of this incredible, amazing body, every phone call, every text, every post, every bill paid, every reminiscent flashback, every image of the future, everything.

 

So…what’s our work? Listen deeply…to the inner self, to those around us, to the messages that come. And love more….with/through/as everything we think and do, every second. Love like there’s no tomorrow—because there might not be. Repeat and repeat and repeat and……