Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
This post is adapted with permission from Into Your Heart: A Creative Path to Healing and Wholeness, a workbook by Julie Ann Stevens.
I am both shadow and light. My foibles and my fragility cannot separate me from the Love that created me.
To be human is to hurt and be hurt.
This is where we tend to get stuck—
in the hurting places.
The hurting places inside and outside are very real.
And yet, they are not the whole story. They do not have the power to define us.
When we identify only with what is wrong, what we did wrong, or what has wronged us—whether we are withered by it, or rage against it—we identify with a false identity.
An identity that separates us from the truth that to be human is
to come from Love,
to Love, and
be Loved.
That is all.
Contemplative Questions
We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- Think of a time when you were meaningfully wronged or hurt. Did you get stuck in that pain or anger? What helped you return to the truth of Love?
- Think of a time when you wronged or hurt someone else. Did you fear that your mistake would define you? How did you return to Love?
- How might your prayer life help you hold the tension between the reality of this hurt, and the deep truth that to be human is to be created by Love?
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
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