On Pain…and love

–> We are all wounded beings. It’s part of our DNA. This is a given, and it’s why I practice. It’s why I practice my profession and it’s part of what inspires me to maintain a spiritual practice. How else to deal with and to heal the pain of living, and of loving? 
Because it’s also true, those we love have the ability to hurt us in the deepest way. We bring our oldest wounds into the relationship and can’t help but react to one another in intimate and consequently vulnerable situations. When we are most vulnerable, we are also most sensitive. In these sensitive times, our relationships can seem like we are just one craziness meeting another! And is one craziness that different from another? Are we not just protecting our softest spots?

Paradoxically, the ways that we hurt one another can also open our avenues to healing.  What feels like a broken heart may just be a softening of its defensive armor. Can we open our hearts even with its vulnerabilities? A love relationship may give us the incentive to do just this. Are we able to be patient and tolerant of one another and love with our wounds? Underneath it all, aren’t our wounds the same?  And so, can we not only love the other but, ourselves as well, with these wounds?   This is the true loving and a deep healing.