This is from Steve Goodier, who though I have never met him, I consider to be quite a good friend.\u00a0 This is both an amusing and truthful look at this issue.\u00a0 And I have an idea about this that he did not mention.\u00a0 So I will once you’ve since his story.\u00a0 :^)<\/p>\n
SO YOU HAVE ENEMIES?<\/p>\n
A knight returned to his castle at twilight. He was a mess. His armor
\nwas dented, his helmet askew, his face was bloody, his horse was
\nlimping and he listed to one side in the saddle. His lord met him at
\nthe gate, asking, “What has befallen you, Sir Knight?”<\/p>\n
Straightening himself up as best he could, he replied, “Oh, Sire, I
\nhave been laboring in your service, robbing and burning and pillaging
\nyour enemies to the west.”<\/p>\n
“You have been what?” cried the startled nobleman. “But I haven’t any
\nenemies to the west!”<\/p>\n
“Oh!” said the knight. And then, after a pause, “Well, I think you do
\nnow.”<\/p>\n
What about you? Enemies to the west? Or the north, or the south, or
\nthe east? None of us will calmly sail through our lives in perfect
\nharmony with everyone we meet. And though most conflict can be
\nresolved along the way, and most of our bruised re\u00adlationships can
\neventually be healed, some passionate issues may threaten to drive a
\nper\u00admanent wedge between people. Heartfelt moral and political
\nstances, especially, can polar\u00adize folks who just as passionately hold
\ndiffering positions.<\/p>\n
Former U.S. Ambassador Claire Booth Luce once observed: “I don’t have
\na warm per\u00adsonal enemy left. They’ve all died off. I miss them
\nterribly because they helped define me.”<\/p>\n
So-called “enemies” can serve a valuable purpose. If we let them, they
\ncan teach us about ourselves. By holding a mirror before us, they can
\nhelp us see what we may have missed. By disa\u00adgree\u00ading with our
\nheartfelt convictions, they can sharpen our points of view. And, if
\nwe allow it, they can unwittingly help us practice strength and
\ncompas\u00adsion in the face of criticism.<\/p>\n
If enemies cannot become friends, they can become teachers. If we
\nlisten, they will teach us what our friends cannot.<\/p>\n
— Steve Goodier<\/p>\n
I just want to point out that enemies need not be people.\u00a0 In all truth, I think most often they are not.\u00a0 They are parts of ourselves we do not understand nor love.\u00a0 It is in finding these hidden parts of ourselves, understanding them, loving them into our existence that we become fully conscious creatures capable of moving mountains.\u00a0 We’ll all get there one day.\u00a0 And what a day THAT will be.\u00a0 I hope you’ve all had a marvelous holiday and an equally wonderful season to come.\u00a0 much love, :^) gene<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is from Steve Goodier, who though I have never met him, I consider to be quite a good friend.\u00a0 This is both an amusing and truthful look at this issue.\u00a0 And I have an idea about this that he did not mention.\u00a0 So I will once you’ve since his story.\u00a0 :^) SO YOU HAVE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onepeople-oneworld.org\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}