“Looking outside is always easier for the mind… There seems to be some one or something that knows more… When the truth is you are the truth of you! There are no other experts in this!”~Wise words from Mike Vecchio

For the human being, this is certainly true. We are raised by sleeping people, as Jesus said. And He went on, “He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” Now what could that mean for the awakening esoteric student? We must look beyond the seeming paradox of this. Little children naturally love their parents; yet Jesus advocated loving Him more than one’s parents.

When I sat and listened to Vernon Howard’s take on life, “You are not your brother’s keeper!”I knew he spoke the truth. For I had given my life over to making my mother happy in the midst of a bad marriage. It didn’t dawn on me until I was in my forties that I had sacrificed my childhood happiness to a lost cause. For my mother, being neurotic, was so easily disappointed. I blamed my father and felt hatred toward him.

I listened as Vernon told us to work as if our lives depended on it, because it did. Sunday school it was not. It was an esoteric classroom that I fell in love with. The words of Jesus came alive for me again and again. Now I write almost daily about what self-kindness means.

He spoke of the False Self (the ego) and the True Self (the soul.) The ego curries the favor of people in order to be thought well of. Ironically, it just makes you remain in your falseness, and the pain becomes unbearable for many people. They turn to drugs, sex and even criminal acts.

I am old enough to know better than to curry favor with people and yet my mind continues to look outside for solutions. We fear other people, although we may lie and say that we don’t. In the last year or two, I have updated my bullet list of items that I try to live by. The one that solves the problem of how to be the truth of you, I came up with this:

If it’s right for me, it’s right for the universe. I must put self-rightness first. I must please myself before giving myself away to people that probably don’t even like me.

I have been dealing with some health issues and already I am planning how to say no if I should be invited to a social event. The truth is that if I go, it would prove to be tiring and therefore, not worth it for me. I much prefer quiet days in which I can bask in the glow of self-acceptance and not put it in the hands of others. There are Higher Hands that belong to the One.

Vicki Woodyard