I am in a meditation group of about 10 people that meets the same time once per week. Because of individual schedules it's a different mix of people each time. A few weeks ago it was just me and Ed, a retired parole officer, who I had yet to have a one on one conversations with. We followed the same structure we had been using each week and when we were finished meditating we shared our meditation experience and a bit of our stories, which are wonderful and complicated.
Fast forward to this past week: my voracious reader friend recommended two books: Dinner with Edward by Isabel Vincent and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. With all these mentions of the name Edward, I began to pay attention. What did God* want to tell me? The answer came at this weeks meditation class, The instructor was there this time, and he began a discussion about judgment of ourselves, of others and of things, and how these are often the thoughts he must let go of during meditation. This is when a light bulb went off for me.
First you must know that my husband's name is Ed(ward) and we have been in love through joyful times and times of struggle for twenty-nine years. What God was telling me to recognize in this coincidental (or not) repetition of the name Ed(ward) is that I must not pass judgment on anyone, that I must love each and every person like I do my Ed(ward). Incidentally, as I write this post, I notice that "ward" repeats itself. So I look up the word "ward". According to Merriam Webster ward means "a person under the protection of a guardian."
Thank you God, this has meaning! It gives me a new way to work on not judging myself and others: I just need to simply reframe how I consider each one of us; that is, I must hold myself and each person as dear, whether it's my Ed(ward), myself or anyone else.
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Now for the reflective questions which you can journal about or if you'd like to share your story, I'd love to hear from you and the community would love to hear from you! Your comment could have a major impact on someone else; most likely it will be just the right thing at the right time for one of the readers. For me, God* wanted me to know that helping even just one person is wonderfully impactful.
Reflective questions:
1. Is there someone you are having a hard time holding dear?
2. What does God* want you to know about this (ask directly, God, what do you want me to know?)
* I use the term God as a universal term. You may decide that Great Spirit, Allah, Higher Power, etc. better suits you today. It is not for me to decide.
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