I am loving me.
I am loving you.
I am loving everyone.
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Sometimes it is easier to love someone else rather than loving oneself.
But, in order to love someone else, we must first love ourselves.
That was a really difficult thing for me to do.
I had had early childhood trauma, including sexual molestation, until I was fourteen years old.
Because of wonderful spiritual tools I learned in Sunday School, I was able to function on a high level academically and musically.
The enduring trauma was buried deep and did not come out again until I was fifty years old.
Learning to deal with that and to heal took another eleven and one-half years.
I began to truly love, cherish and adore myself, bit by tiny bit.
At the same time, it worked out for me to receive help in stopping a bully in a business setting.
I was every encouraged that I could receive help and relief.
Over a longer period of time, I was harassed by a neighbor.
It became necessary for me to practice loving myself more every time I was harassed.
Finally, it became natural for me to love myself very consistently and consciously.
Then, one night, I found myself awake and led to truly love my neighbor in the way I had learned to love myself.
I feel as though I am on an entirely different life-track now, one that has nothing to do with a job or career.
It has entirely to do with my new viewpoint.
To love others as I have learned to love myself and to see that attitude spreading around me.
© 2012 Kathryn Hardage
www.InspiredPractices.com
