“When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying, “You’re too this, or I’m too this.” That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.” Ram Dass. Thank you Kim Leonard, www.bitofhoneytraining.com for reposting this quote from The Master Shift’s Facebook page.
The above captures an aspect of Bless Your Heart®. When I was first creating the concept of “simply bless and leave the rest” as a tagline for Bless Your Heart®, I began to ask, if the animals could relate to this concept. Do they have a name for “blessings”? I asked animal communicator Sandy Lagno, www.sandylagno.com, if she would ask the horses this question. The horses showed her, the closest they could come to the concept of blessings was “allowing”. Horses are the sum total of their environment and experiences. They just are and that’s how they see each other and that’s how they see us. They don’t judge. For them it’s all about survival.
Ram Dass looks at people as trees. I simply stay in the place of blessings and if I’m really struggling with a person or situation, I look at them as I would the animals. They are doing the best they can and I’m not the one to form an opinion about them. They just are. This works well when I’m with others, but it’s the hardest space to keep when it’s about myself. My daily practice is to simply bless myself and leave the rest.