higher-vibe

When I was about 20 years old, I met an old pastor’s wife who told me that when she was young and had her first child, she didn’t believe in striking children, although spanking kids with a switch pulled from a tree was standard punishment at the time. But one day, when her son was four or five, he did something that she felt warranted a spanking–the first in his life. She told him that he would have to go outside himself and find a switch for her to hit him with. The boy was gone a long time. And when he came back in, he was crying. He said to her, “Mama, I couldn’t find a switch, but here’s a rock that you can throw at me.” All of a sudden the mother understood how the situation felt from the child’s point of view: that if my mother wants to hurt me, then it makes no difference what she does it with; she might as well do it with a stone. And the mother took the boy into her lap and they both cried. Then she laid the rock on a shelf in the kitchen to remind herself forever: never violence. And that is something I think everyone should keep in mind. Because if violence begins in the nursery one can raise children into violence.

What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.

Allowing ourselves to recognize and relish the positive in life doesn’t diminish the suffering some people endure or justify the injustices of the world. Nor does it undo the heavier burdens we may carry. Nonetheless, when we recognize the power of positive emotion on our wellbeing – indeed, the critical role of positivity in our basic health, it’s a downright shame to deny ourselves the full portion of its benefits.

When you love yourself, the natural result is overflowing love for all the people you encounter. If you do not love and accept others around you (as they are, whatever they do), this is sure sign that there is more work to do to love yourself.