sharing

i wrote this this morning -

'if i share myself with you,
will you listen and hear beyond the words?
will you not assume
but instead ask and learn?
will you open your heart to who i am
and embrace all of me?
will i understand that i must do the same for you?
and as we both fall short of this,
will we remember that truly learning to love
is the dance of fully living?'


for me, there's a lot in here.
there's my needs, yeah.
those are always important to me.

but this part -

'will i understand that i must do the same for you?'

that part.
that part really makes me stop and reflect.

cause here's the thing.....
not getting my needs met - in any relationship -
makes my fears kick in and my walls go up.
suddenly life becomes all about me.
and what you're not doing.
and if it's really bad, i can go into invisible mode.
or heck, there's a million modes i can go into.
none of which help me offer love to the other person.

sigh.
that's a whole lot for me to reflect on.
in fact, i've been thinking about it all day.

but instead of beating myself up too much about that,
the last part reminds me - it's part of the dance of fully living.
and the act of trying over and over again is an act of love in itself
and i so totally want my life to be about those acts.

this one's echoing inside me today.
so i thought i would share.