~ I did not learn this from the gods. I learned it from the dogs ~

As we slip into a new year it’s common for many of us to put attention to things we resolve to do or be in the coming year.  Aren’t those resolutions usually wrapped in ideas that you’re not good enough just the way you are. “I just need to change a few things then I’ll be better.. life will be better … 2021 will be a better.”

Sometimes I find myself falling into that thinking so when I came across this wisdom from Fred LaMotte, a poet I really dig, it was like a drink of refreshing reality.  And it seems like the best thing I could share with you as we venture into 2021.

I’m celebrating you just the way you are!
with love,
Sharon

You don’t need to be a rosy-soft new-age angel in order to meditate.
 
You don’t need to sip liquified kale, live in an ashram, or be politically correct, in order to tap the infinite Source.
 
You don’t need to be someone better, someone higher, someone purer, someone ‘else.’ There is no one ‘else’ for you to be.
 
Here is the heresy of Truth: The fundamental dis-ease that cripples our whole culture is the toxic anxiety of striving to be someone better. It is the very search that divides us from ourselves.
 
Let’s wake up and find the courage to be incomparable. Call off the search. The beginning and end of spiritual practice is to rest the mind in its own broken heart.
 
Align with your jagged edges. Tune into the rough, unpolished, yet sparkling joy of your uniqueness.
 
The symphony of creation would not resonate in the same harmony without your singular piercing lovely note. The world doesn’t need another Gandhi, or Jesus, or ‘spiritual teacher’ – it needs You.
 
‘Enlightenment’ is more like falling than rising, more like collapsing than getting it all together.
 
Fall into your own rhythm: this is perfect stillness. Collapse into the Grace at the heart of your own chaos: that is perfect peace.
 
I did not learn this from the gods. I learned it from the dogs.
 
 ~  Fred LaMotte ~