True Heart
/Letter to November 11, written on April 6, 2016. 11/11, is Veteran’s Day, originally known as Armistice Day commemorating the end of WW1, which occurred on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. America turned Armistice Day into Veteran’s Day focusing on the veteran’s of all American combat. Armistice means an agreement made by opposing sides in a war to stop fighting for a certain time; a truce. The word “truce” derives from a variety of Old English and Germanic words meaning “faith or trust, but also covenant or treaty.” Armistice day: the day we lay down our arms, forfeit our protection, and place our faith that we will not be attacked when vulnerable to each other.
True Heart
I write to you today (April 6, 2016) as True Heart, as the one who sees rightly in the world and acts in accord with the divine. The river flows through you and yours is the channel of delivery. Your thoughts, your feelings, your attitude, and your movement manifest the divine. Let it be your sustenance and your provider. Let it be your guide and your messenger. Open your eyes to your true nature and you cannot go astray. You have taken steps on the holy path and embraced your source, which does not waver in love despite the wavering in your faith. This is the end time of battle, fatigue having gotten the better of you, and time for your rehabilitation in spirit. Submit yourself.
I write this as the Nick of days, the one who went to B Street Theater alone last night and sat in the theater looking around at the elder audience (average age was likely 50+), at lives lived in companionship. I spied couples with each other, some engaged in conversation and some sitting idly side-by-side, and this question came up, both of them and for me:
How do you live with yourself?
This is a question I take into my dreams, a question I send off to that point in the future when your eyes meet this page. It is a question of genuine curiosity, not meant in the pompous way it is sometimes asked of one who has done wrong in the world. It is a sincere query into how I live with myself, how I make my peace with myself, how I pamper or prod myself, how I treat myself on my worst days and my best days and all the days in between. It is a question of how much or how little I support my love, stand tall in my life, and live from my heart. It is a question that honors the greater part of me, and acknowledges that I am in a relationship with my Self, with this seemingly alien, barely known, and often misunderstood essence. It recognizes this Self as having a mind of its own, an agenda, with purposes and goals of its own and that these range from the mundane to the sublime.
How do I live with myself?
The answer is not found in pretty words or hyperbolic fantasy, but in everyday life. It is found in the incessant inner chatter where I sometimes berate myself and sometimes praise myself. It is found in the care I give to myself, the way I treat my body, my mind, my heart, and my soul. Take an honest look. See yourself rightly, with the eyes of True Heart. Take stock. Then judge for yourself whether these acts are worthy of you. Set your conclusions before the god of your days, whose forgiveness is complete, and who gives you the strength to sort out the riches, to polish the diamonds, to nurture the best in you, and to live as True Heart does, as one who knows himself and who sees rightly.
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
How do you live with yourself?
Most of us live in a kind or inner battle with ourselves, with others (that we carry within us), or with life. But whatever the source of the struggle, the battleground is within us.
What if you called a truce?
What if you made peace with yourself and your life?
Make this your armistice day!
This is an entry in my series of "Letters To Future Self." I pick a date, usually around 6 months in the future, check my calendar to see what is scheduled, and then write a letter storing it in the reminder system on Evernote to be read on the selected date. I do not look at the letter again until the "arrival" date. To read other Letters To Future Self, click the tag below.
© Nick LeForce
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