I love you. The Invitation #8

 Failure.

 

                I want to know if you can live with failure,

          your and mine,

          and still stand at the edge of the lake

         and shout to the silver of the full moon,

       "Yes!"

"When we cannot live with failure, we limit the intimacy in our lives. People do not tell stories of failure to those who have room in their hearts only for perfection. Tell me a story of failure in your life, a time when you made a mistake. Tell it with compassion for the child or man or woman you were. Tell it with ruthless honesty and gentle acceptance. We do not avoid shame by hiding mistakes. The shame just becomes buried within us.

 

"Shame releases it's paralysing grip on us when we take responsibility for our mistakes and the sometimes serious consequences those mistakes can have for ourselves and others. In this way shame can be our ally, pointing to things we have not accepted about ourselves, and making retribution for these injuries where it is possible. "Forgiveness happens with time, as we learn to live with what cannot be changed. The capacity to live with what is hard is within us. When we can live consciously with the knowledge of what we or others have done, we are freed from the constant, if unconscious effort of trying to pull away from what is.

 

~Oriah Mountain Dreamer