Let It In

Last weekend, I was out for a run on my favorite nature trail.  As usual, I was lost in my own thoughts – churning and churning away in my mind and only half taking in the breathtaking beauty around me. 

At one point, I was the only person on a quarter-mile stretch of the trail.  In the distance, I could see a couple approaching – a man and a woman – out for a run just like me, and coming closer.  My first instinct was to put up my usual defenses and prepare for a polite nod and a faint “hello,” keeping my protective bubble intact as we passed each other.  But as the couple drew nearer, in a moment of grace, I had the thought that my exchange with them could be an exchange of love.  Rather than shielding myself from their energy, I could open myself to it.  As they passed and we each said our hello’s, I allowed myself to experience their words as an expression of love, rather than as a threat.  I felt a palpable shift in my energy as I dropped my defenses, if only momentarily, and let their love (really God’s love, showing up as them) in.  What a difference!  

As I continue to work with the idea of vulnerability as the path to true connection, I will have many opportunities to practice being open to receive God’s love from everywhere, not just from familiar people and in the familiar places where I’m used to looking for it.

~REBECCA