In looking for inspiration for the Friday Focus this week, I stumbled upon an article that I’d read awhile back. It resonated so deeply with me. The wisdom and insight and reminders shared in the piece were a real support to me on my own journey. It is so beautifully stated. It is expressed from the heart, so clearly, so passionately, so simply. It is not just written, but embodied by the writer. I felt compelled to share it with you.

So, here it is, the parts and pieces that I love, from Jean Tinder’s article in the November 2013 Shaumbra Magazine called Simplicity.

“…no matter how many messages are given, no matter how many helpful concepts are taught, ultimately they are all built on one simple foundation.

I suppose we humans have installed so many filters and constructs and ideas and programs around our core that it takes all these messages and different ways of saying it to help us dismantle them, bit by bit. But the underlying foundation of every message is always very simple.

There are no mantras to say, no rituals to practice, no beliefs to espouse, no steps to accomplish, no puzzles to sort out. And that can actually be frustrating sometimes. We want to be able to point to an accomplishment and demand the reward, to take proscribed steps with the assurance we’ll realize a certain outcome, to follow the directions and know we got it right…It’s comforting, and very satisfying to our logical minds…But eventually all those doings have to go away. We have to come back to the basics, the simplicity, the core within.

Once we do, we find it is so simple and so basic that we almost instantly look around for something else, or for a way to make the simplicity seem more valuable. But there’s nothing in the universe that could possibly be more valuable, more profound – or more difficult – than the choice to love yourself.

When taken deeply within and chosen without reservation, created without hesitation and experienced without reluctance, this love for yourself is the answer to every question, every puzzle, every pain and every challenge, bar none. But we have erected an amazing amount of barriers to that love…

…No matter what you are facing, no matter what pain or frustration you feel, no matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done, no matter who did what to you, the key to wholeness and peace is so simple it can be easy to miss. But don’t wait till you’ve figured it all out before you can accept it. Don’t wait till you understand the puzzle before you make the choice for love. The key for everything you seek is within you. With the love comes understanding, answers, integration, wisdom and peace.

Oh, and try not to distract yourself with asking ‘how’ to love you. When you love a lover or a child or a parent, you don’t first ask ‘how’ to love them. You just do and it becomes naturally expressed. Just do love you, and the how will become apparent. Make the choice for love and the supporting energies will be there. Take the breath of love and you will come alive.

It really is so simple…”

It doesn’t have to be hard.
It doesn’t have to be complex.
It really doesn’t.
Make a choice to step out of the maze.
Take a deep breath.
And simply choose to love self.
It is the simple answer.
And I know that for sure.

xo