In today’s entry in "Journey to the Heart" by Melody Beattie, the author reflects on a personal journey and the lessons she learned along the way. What I take as the key lesson from this entry, and find extremely relevant to the work that we do here at Strength in Heart, is to not only to trust the process of your journey, but also to respect it. Go beyond mere trust and develop a deep appreciation for your own journey. This means to respect your emotions, allow them to surface, express, and lead to new discoveries. It also means to respect past experiences, both the positive and challenging ones.
Each of our journeys is unique and valuable. By cultivating respect for both oneself and others, we can navigate through life with a greater sense of appreciation and understanding.
Here is the full entry:
Journey to the Heart, by Melody Beattie (June 14)
Learn the power of respect
I watched as my journey unfolded this spring. Each place I visited gave me a lesson. People would show up at the right time and place with exactly the words I needed to hear. Sometimes the lesson would be announced loudly, clearly. Sometimes an awareness would surface softly when I least expected it, when I was beginning to wonder if any lesson or purpose was there at all. Everything I saw and experienced ultimately reinforced my trust in God, the universe, and the power of my heart to lead me on. After all I had taken this trip on just a moment's notice with no itinerary, and a magical adventure had unfolded. By the time the journey ended and I pulled into the driveway at home, I had learned more than just to trust the process. I had learned to respect it.
Do more than trust the process, the journey you're on. Become so awestruck by it that you respect it, too. Respect your feelings and the timely manner in which they surface, heal, and lead you into new discoveries. Respect your experiences, the places you've been, the scenarios you've been through. Respect the way you've gained gold and jewels, The treasures of the soul, from each one.
Respect the darker moments, the more difficult times when you're uncertain and don't know what to do next. Respect the timing as your life and journey unfolds. Don't remember about why such and such has to be the way it is. Don't limit how your growth can happen.
Learn to respect the path of others.
Learn to respect your own.