Saturday, February 14, 2009

Being Nice

I don't know how it is for you but I know in my gut when someone is loving me with real love instead of that fake, ego feeding impostor kind of love. I have reacted, sometimes violently, to real love. Nothing breaks down my walls quicker than that love which comes from beyond ourselves. It leaves me feeling both vulnerable and empowered. So, as much as I can belly ache about it, I prefer the real deal no matter how difficult it is sometimes to embrace it. Happy St. Valentine's Day y'all. (See what kind of influence you're having on me? Lordy, no one says y'all this far north. I have never heard it said outloud ever, except in movies. Gonna have to fix that one day.)

Being Nice, and Other Barriers to Love

by Alan Jones

One of the most damaging things about the popular view of love is that it requires being nice all the time. I don't think that I am a particularly nice person. In fact, one of the reasons that I count myself among the believers is that I cannot rely on my being nice to pull me through.

Being nice is closely allied, of course, to being liked. The two go together. If I'm not nice you won't like me, and if you don't like me then there is no chance of love springing up between us. This kind of reasoning breeds dishonesty because it means that "love" becomes a code word for avoiding confrontation or disagreement....

~continue reading at inwardoutward


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woo! Good quote that I needed to hear this particular morning. Thanks Hope.
Hearts and flowers to you this a.m.

<3 <3 **** (My graphic interpretation of hearts and flowers)

Mich

One Prayer Girl said...

Happy Valentine's Day, Hope!

steveroni said...

How did I get this old, be married that many times, and have that many children, and not know what is love? beats me!

Choir director at St Elizabeth Seton gave me a small book, THE WAY TO LOVE, by Anthony De Mello, as a Christmas present. Did she see something I did not?

Well, god gives us what we need, but not before we really need it.

It IS in a way, wonderful, to find that I know nothing about a common human characteristic, condition, or action of the mind, heart, and soul
--LOVE. It only means God will allow me to live quite a time longer, because I have so much to learn, and I AM a slow learner!
Steve E.