When Anne Eddy’s soul mate John passed away from a sudden heart attack, she was certain another wouldn’t come along – until he did. She is pictured here with her husband Will.
Relationships are the foundations of our life experience. The energies and experiences surrounding them offers us the the most rewarding as well as some of the most challenging moments of our lives. Our growth and soul’s journey is greatly impacted by the relationships we choose and how we process and carry the many rich life moments, days or years that accompany these relationships. A friend recently reminded me of this quote, “relationships are for a reason, a season or a lifetime.” How many times do we struggle to embrace this fact? When we face challenges or painful experiences within our relationships, how many times are we so focused on the emotions we are feeling? How many times are our sights firmly planted in our own perspective without seeing the other person’s view? We can be assured that there is a reason, and a blessing in the lesson that has been presented to us. We may not be able to see it at the time, especially in experiences that accompany emotions of sadness, anger and grief. We can also be assured that the universe will continue to present us with experiences and relationships to illuminate our shadows and come more closely in touch with our own life purpose. This is not meant to sound discouraging. It is important to practice self love as well.
I find that when we experience repeating themes, we feel like we should have seen it from the beginning. We should have learned from our past mistakes. We feel like we are having a “groundhog day” experience.
As I face experiences of my life, I have come in touch with how important it is for me to hold on to people and experiences as they were in the past. We are all continually evolving, even in the moments that we may feel stuck. We are still interested in progressing out of that place. All of us are constantly changing. Life is constantly changing. Change is not always easy to embrace. We can find ourselves longing or focused on the past moments of a relationship, but be clouded to what is happening right now, today. It is possible to be so focused on the way that a relationship once was or painting a picture for yourself of how you so wish it could be, that you can find yourself in a place of denial as to how it really is. This place of denial can both cast a shadow on your own feelings and also the messages that are being sent to you from your friend or partner. In line with these themes is the famous quote from Anais Nin: “We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.”
Our experience within every relationship is impacted by every previous one. Our childhood experiences, along with many other experiences throughout our lives impact our future love relationships.
The choices we make and judgments we may hold set the stage for who we attract into our lives and who we are attracted to as well.
In my work of spiritual counseling, I am constantly put in touch with the fact that it is not simply what happens to us, but how we are impacted by these experiences that matters. How we hold the energy or how we release it become key elements to our balance, and to our future relationships and most importantly the relationship we have with ourself.
I love to escape the many entanglements we can encounter when it comes to this topic and meditate on these words from A Course in Miracles.
“When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him, you will see yourself. As you treat him, you will treat yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.”