~ No Excuses ~

Many people say you must forget about yourself and love other people. Well, it doesn't work that way. The truth is, you must first accept yourself with all your mistakes - all of your so-called sins, all the times you look like a fool, and all the times you've acted inappropriately.

You must be able to stand before the entire world and make no excuse for yourself.
When you can do that, you're coming from a position of unconditional love.

Robert Anthony


There is so much truth in this but how difficult it is to put it into practice. So often, although we know all too well how weak and selfish we are, we feel compelled to pretend before other people so they will think us better than we really are. We have come to prize the opinion of others above that of being true to ourselves. Does this therefore mean we can only be true to ourselves if we stand alone and refuse to seek out the company of others? There are many who have thought that way and have shut themselves away in convents and monasteries, imposing vows of silence upon themselves. Have they found the true answer of how to live with unconditional love?

Isolation is not an easy option but despite this, I cannot believe that the way to overcome any negative aspects of our character is to run away and hide, no matter how much such self-denial may cost us. It is no accident that human beings band together in groups by nature and it is by no means natural for us to remain solitary. We are united by a common spiritual bond, even though each one of us appears to be so different from the other. As Alexander Pope puts it so eloquently in his “Essay on Man,” “That changed through all and yet in all the same.” We are each sons and daughters of The Great Spirit, or God, or The Great First Cause, or whatever name you prefer to call the power that is the source of all life. That means no matter how much we may differ in colour of skin, language, personality, beliefs or nationality, we all exist only because of the power of the spirit within us. Without our inner spirit we could not be.

No matter how difficult it is to come face to face with ourselves as we truly are, it is indeed the only way to achieve and experience unconditional love. The Ancient Greeks knew this well for written above the doors of the Oracle at Delphi were the words “Know Thyself”. It is impossible to forget yourself but it is possible to get to know your self so well, warts and all. Then you must learn to accept and love being what you are. Having gained this close acquaintance with ourselves and accepted ourselves as we truly are we can proceed to recognise that despite all our faults, we are part of the Source of all life and as such eternal and will after many trials and temptations, become as pure as the Angels. Thus we can truly love ourselves in a selfless, non-egotistical way. Only then will we be able to love others as we love ourselves.

Perhaps this is the ultimate challenge of our earthly lives!