The Power of Loving Kindness

   Some days life is amazing.  It gives you a challenge you think that you can't overcome, and yet somehow you do.  Or you are faced with a situation that a few years (or even months) ago would have crushed your spirit, but here you are doing okay.
    Today was that day.  To the left is my Facebook post.  "Be careful with  your words.  Once they are said, they can be only forgiven, not forgotten."   In a true stroke of irony, this was the post that pushed one of my long time acquaintances over the edge. There were several comments, one of which was to persuade all of the people who read it that both yoga and reiki are hoaxes, if not evil.
     We all get to have our own opinions, but not on my professional page (she said indignantly).  With the first comment, I worked through with loving kindness, using my favorite prayer-" Dear X,
I love you, I'm sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you."  This prayer acknowledges that in any relationship (or cyber quarrel) there are two parties.  It lets me take responsibility for my half of the relationship and heal myself.  I was doing okay, maybe patting myself on the back.

 Unfortunately, there were four more comments to follow.  Let's just say that all of the sudden I realized I was hyperventilating, felt wounded and misunderstood.  In that instant I had a divine "teaching moment."  It was like God had reached down and rearranged my mind.  If the statements were hurtful, it revealed some underlying uncertainty in my mind, some need for validation from an outside source.
     After spending some time rolling around in my hurt, because I needed to walk through it rather than sweep it under the carpet, I have come to realize what a gift this is.  I know where I need to work on myself.  Even more it revealed the power of this prayer for healing.  There was no need to run away from the situation, but rather to pray my way through it.  I hope that this experience is as great a blessing to the one who sent the messages.