Walk Through Your Prison Bars

The desire to understand someone may be a greater manifestation of love than the desire to see them change. Many times, once I have cared enough to understand a person's story, my desire for their change is the thing that actually changed. This ability to love another - even with their imperfections - applies to ourselves too.

We all have scar tissue - formed by years of life as it happens. Often, we allow these scars - reminders of our flaws and our limitations - to restrict our options. We assume we aren't capable of more. We focus so much on the flaws, we fail to see our gifts.

At some point we must make peace with the imperfect path that has led us to this moment. There is both liberation and self-acceptance in knowing that we are all graciously flawed and gifted. And upon thoughtful reflection, those two things - the flaws and the gifts - are often impossible to distinguish from the other. 

It is the mix then of the bumbling & dancing, the stumbling & running, that have made this path that is our life. The irony is some of the things we would give the world to undo are the very things that have led us to this graced moment.

One of life's greatest revelations happens the moment we finally realize the prison bars we’ve been banging our cup on - the feelings that we are flawed or don’t quite measure up - are actually spaced far enough apart to walk through.