We Love You, Warts and All

Why do they love me? If they really knew me, they wouldn't love me. If they knew this or that, there's no way they would love me.

Is that so? Don't you think everybody on the planet has their own "this or that"? We all have things we would erase, if we could. But the truth of the matter is, those things that we find so repulsive about ourselves or our history are necessary for the growth we need to experience in this life.

I think about how diligently the news media digs up dirt on every politician and celebrity. I wonder how it would be if the tables were turned and someone started digging in their own past. Hmmm... I bet they would think twice before throwing stones.

For me, the solution to figuring out who really loved me was just to open my closet door and say, "See? There are all my skeletons. Ugly, huh"?

Amazingly, no one who really mattered rejected me. In fact, I found compassion from most folks. A few turned away, because they couldn't handle truth, but that is actually an excellent way of weeding out people in your life who are not contributing to your highest good.

I suspect this is what is happening when very wealthy people lose their fortunes. I'm betting their soul feels a need to separate their true friends from the parasites, and what better way to do this than to drain off the resources the parasites are showing up for?

One of my early speeches in Toastmasters was titled, "We Love You, Warts and All". The point I was trying to make is that we are loved for our "flaws" and human foibles, not in spite of them.

Actually, the truest and purest love has absolutely nothing to do with your personality, your strengths or your weaknesses. You are loved simply because you are, the way we love our babies, who have done absolutely nothing to earn or merit that love. This is the way God loves us, and the way we need to remember to love one another. We know how, since we are created in the image of the Creator. We simply need to remember.

In the words of Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss): "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."