Relationships Can Be Stumbling Blocks
Relationships can be very painful. For many the pain seems rooted in our family of origin. However, the past is gone, and there are steps we can practice on a daily basis, now, that will not only relieve the pain, but will enhance our relationships, all of them, those we recognize as significant and those which seem fleeting.
One of the easiest steps we can take to improve our relationships and ease our discontent about the past or the present, is to recognize that whom ever is in our life at any moment is an opportunity that has been offered by God for us to express the love and acceptance that will heal our own pain.
We too often dismiss these "ordinary" opportunities, the store clerk; the postal worker; the individual holding us up in traffic; thinking, no doubt, that God will send us people we recognize instantly as significant, if we are to practice acceptance. How wrong that assumption is. Every single person we meet is where our work begins if we want to have less pain in our own lives and more peaceful relationships with any of the people we consider our primary partners.
What we do to one, how we behave in any instance, affects all relationships. We may not understand how this universal principle works, but it does; and the residual effects of mistreating any person are profound, subtle, and undeniable. And they are felt by us just as they have been felt by those we mistreated.
There is another way to live. That's the good news. And it begins with willingness, the willingness to put aside our negative judgments of others; the willingness to listen to the voice of our Higher Power or God as you understand God, before taking any action or making any response; the willingness to believe no relationship, however fleeting, is unimportant in the evolution of our lives. Coming to cherish the idea that each person is in our lives by design can make every encounter rich with meaning and hope and appreciation for the opportunity it is offering for our growth.
We will continue with our discussion of relationships in future web articles. I believe that healing relationships is our primary reason for being alive and the work we need to do is only as hard as we make it.
