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~ Quantum-Grace.com ~ Healing ~ Insight ~ Transformation ~ Awareness ~ Flight ~
You are worthy, you are beautiful and you are loved—just the way you are.
— Heather K. O'Hara |
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Just the Way You Are An article by Heather K. O’Hara
As I sit here today at my computer, totally immersed in my writing, I look up every so often to gaze out the window in my office. It is mid-July; and, I am captured by the beauty before me.
Summer flowers are in full bloom, so anxious to please me that they are literally tumbling out of their ceramic pots, cascading directly into my line of vision as if to say, “We’re here for you, Heather, we’re here!”
Four children run past my front porch―I hear them laughing, then making ENORMOUS animal sounds, and then bursting into gales of laughter again! My own children are gone for the summer, and I’m feeling a need for a splash of intoxicating playfulness, so I get up and walk outside to be closer to their contagious joy.
Before I have a chance to say anything though, a beautiful little girl, radiant with delight, looks up at me and says with astounding pride, “I am a mountain lion and my friends are tigers!”
How wonderful, I think, to transform into a lion or a tiger in the blink of an eye! And then a little boy, no more than three years old, peeks out from behind the others, raises his arms to the sky, and with a huge smile on his face, he gives the world his very loudest and very best roar! I can tell that he has absolutely no idea what animal he is, nor does he care, but whatever it is, he sure is having fun being it!
As the happy, laughing, vociferous bunch of untamed youth run off to their next transformational experience, I return to my office filled with a wonderful and fresh supply of inspiration. But before I begin working again, my eyes are drawn back to the window, and through the thick foliage of trees in my front yard I notice a sliver of pale blue sky leaning into the ancient arms of a giant spruce―and for the first time, I see that it is a little overcast today. The usual July sun is hiding somewhere, but what really astounds me is how beautiful it is―even without the sun.
I look with joyful wonder at that which is before me.
I am doing what I love to do. I am surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees. There are children laughing and wild animals running wild and free! Life just gets better and better!
It is a perfect day. True happiness flows to me and through me with effortless grace and ease.
This day, and all of its remarkable moments, brings to mind a fable I love about a man who was walking through heaven and came upon an enormous building. He entered the building and inside he found row after row of neatly stacked boxes, each tied with a beautiful satin bow. As the man walked down each row he was amazed at the number of unopened boxes that were in the building and, suddenly seeing one with his name on it, he quickly tore it open. Inside his box, he found all the blessings that God had wanted him to have while he was on Earth, but because he had never recognized them he had never received them.
This is the story of mans inhumanity to himself―so many gifts; so much to be thankful for, so much of our own stunning beauty being reflected back to us each day and, somehow, there are so many of us who miss it entirely.
When we are given another perfect day, another beautiful and inspiring moment, or when we hear the wondrous laughter of children, the highest power in the Universe is saying, “I love you just the way you are, please accept this gift.” But instead of receiving, we argue for our unworthiness, finding every reason not to be loved and valued just as we are.
We say, “I made a really bad choice yesterday. I’m worthless and unlovable. I do not deserve gifts. I do not deserve joy.” And if that doesn’t stop divine generosity, we say, “If you really loved me, you would do it my way―you’d help me make better choices, you’d give me everything I want.”
The answer from the realm of unconditional love and understanding is always the same, “You are worthy and you are lovable and you are trusted to make choices that reflect your freedom as an individual. You need only look, and what is already yours is given to you if you are ready and willing to have it.”
God is both the Giver and the Gift. There is no separation. To refuse the Gift is to refuse the God and, to refuse the God is to refuse the Gift. Yet, that incredible power that many call “God” keeps trying, day after day, to give us what we have convinced ourselves we are not receiving or feel we are not worthy of having.
No matter what we call it, there is nothing we can do or see or feel that is not divine. Every day, every moment―sunny, cloudy or otherwise―is a gift. And when we know this, everything around us and within us becomes perfect and beautiful just the way it is.
By acknowledging our own worthiness and divinity, we also acknowledge God’s worthiness and divinity. When we think, Oh, what a beautiful day it is, we are actually saying, Oh, what a beautiful God I find in everything. And when we find the beautiful God in everything, we find the beautiful God within ourselves.
We too, are both the Giver and the Gift. And as we share this lifetime with the greatest power of the Universe, again, there is no separation. The Creator and the Creation are one.
Our own eternal beauty and worthiness is free. We don’t have to do anything special or be anything special to have it. All that is required is that we acknowledge it, accept it and share it the best way we know how. You are worthy. You are beautiful. And you are loved.
Every morning of your life, the lover of your soul gently touches your face and whispers, “I love you just the way you are.” Except this perfect gift―go to a mirror, look back at the face that looks back at you―touch it, honor it; reach as far as you can into your own reflection and say, “I love you, too―just the way you are.”
_________________________________________________________________ You have my permission to reprint this article in your newsletter or on your website in its entirety without any alteration. If you choose to reprint, please add the following at the end of the article:
Heather K. O'Hara is an award-winning poet and author of AXIS, The Song in the Center of the Soul and Living on Level 7 (Choosing a Life with a View) Visit her website today and sign up for her free, worldwide, monthly newsletter, "A Touch of Grace" from Heather O'Hara,
"An Extraordinary Experience for Extraordinary People"
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©2005-2006 H. K. O'Hara/Quantum-Grace.Com All Rights Reserved. ________________________________________________ Heather K. O'Hara - hkohara@Quantum-Grace.com - H. K. O'Hara & Associates, LLC P.O. Box 22646, Denver, Colorado 80222, USA
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