the way i see it.

at our last manager’s meeting, josh bought everyone breakfast snacks from starbuck’s. he got me a pumpkin spice latte and a croissant. i got distracted during the meeting by the writing on the packaging of my coffee cup/sleeve and the bag that held my pastry.

starbuck’s has opened up their packaging for guests to share their view of things–their worldview, if you will, calling it “the way i see it.” i am always fascinated to read what others have written…thinking that it would be hard to come up with a pithy declaration of my own worldview in five lines or less.
the one on my coffee cup this particular morning read:

the way i see it #275
when i wake up in the morning,
i want to know that my family,
friends and fans know what i
believe in and what i’m all about.
that’s what should be important.
~robert rudolph, musician.

there is much truth contained in this statement.

isn’t this what most of us want…
to be able to convey to others what we believe in,
what we stand for,
and what is important to us?

don’t we want others to know us fully?
and don’t we strive towards this, employing various means (rudolph, i am sure, uses music…some use art…some play sports…others write)?

we, it seems, are all on a similar journey. rudolph simply voices his for the entire coffee community to read…others of us do so in a more clandestine fashion. we are all revealing ourselves for others to understand…sometimes clearly doing so, while other times not able to articulate it as well. but it is a process…a process of illuminating who we are so we can be seen in the light.

but, in the end, we are all striving for the same things.
we all want to be gotten…
we all want to be known…
we all want to be valued for who we are…
and we all want others to discover what we truly are.

at least that is the way i see it.

love.

what we need is to love without getting tired.
~mother teresa,
nobel peace prize-winning humanitarian

how hard is it to love?

it seems rather easy–at times…
and yet, excruciatingly difficult at times.

sometimes i ace it…
and sometimes i fail miserably.

i want to act and respond in love–most of the time…
and other times i allow opposing emotions to dictate my actions.

this is a dilemma that occurs for me in relationships at work, in my classes, with those that i call neighbors, in friendships, with my family, with those whom i encounter at the grocery store, those driving alongside me on the freeway, or those i meet while working out…
i cannot escape it.
i cannot escape people.
i cannot escape relationships i have with people.
i cannot escape how i respond to people.

and i cannot escape love…
and how i love others.

but the problem is how i love…
how i love conditionally.
how i love impatiently.
how i love with a lack of understanding.
how i love selfishly.
how i love according to my own standards of love.

and how i fail to love…
when others don’t love me.
when others hurt me.
when others frustrate me.
when others misread me.
when others seem unloveable.
when others withdraw.
when others fail to love me the way in which i think i need or deserve.

or when it is messy…
or when the situation is difficult…
or when i am tired…
or when i want to throw in the towel on loving others.

but i don’t.
i continue…i press on.
i love–not perfectly, but in process.