Do Not Be Ashamed by Wendell Berry

You will be walking some night
in the comfortable dark of your yard
and suddenly a great light will shine
round about you, and behind you
will be a wall you never saw before.
It will be clear to you suddenly
that you were about to escape,
and that you are guilty: you misread
the complex instructions, you are not
a member, you lost your card
or never had one. And you will know
that they have been there all along,
their eyes on your letters and books,
their hands in your pockets,
their ears wired to your bed.
Though you have done nothing shameful,
they will want you to be ashamed.
They will want you to kneel and weep
and say you should have been like them.
And once you say you are ashamed,
reading the page they hold out to you,
then such light as you have made
in your history will leave you.
They will no longer need to pursue you.
You will pursue them, begging forgiveness.
They will not forgive you.
There is no power against them.
It is only candor that is aloof from them,
only an inward clarity, unashamed,
that they cannot reach. Be ready.
When their light has picked you out
and their questions are asked, say to them:
"I am not ashamed." A sure horizon
will come around you. The heron will begin
his evening flight from the hilltop.

Listen:

 Unconditional Love- Tara Brach

"All you need is already within you, only you must approach your self with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors. Your constant flight from pain and search for pleasure is a sign of love you bear for your self, all I plead with you is this: make love of your self perfect. Deny yourself nothing -- give your self infinity and eternity and discover that you do not need them; you are beyond.”

"When we are caught in our struggles about feeling good about ourselves, we shut down our access to creativity, intelligence, and love."

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”

-Henri Nouwen

"I want to make you feel beautiful."

“look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them or just your thoughts about them.... Without knowing it, we are coloring everything, putting our spin on it all.” 

                                                                                                 

“There's the story, then there's the real story, then there's the story of how the story came to be told. Then there's what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too.”

                                                                                                               —Margaret Atwood

Unsaid by A. R. Ammons

Have you listened for the things I have left out?
I am nowhere near the end yet and already
               hear
           the hum of omissions,
the chant of vacancies, din of

silences:

there is the other side of matter, antimatter,
              the antiproton:
           we
have measured the proton:    it has mass:    we
have measured the antiproton:   it has negative mass:

you will not

hear me completely even at this early point
unless you hear my emptiness:
              go back:
           how can I
tell you what I have not said:   you must look for it

yourself:   that

side has weight, too, though words cannot bear it
out:   listen for the things I have left out:
            I  am
         aware
of them, as you must be, or you will miss

the non-song

in my singing:   it is not that words cannot say
what is missing:   it is only that what is missing
              cannot
          be missed if
spoken:   read the parables of my unmaking:

feel the ris-

ing bubble's trembling walls:    rush into the domes
these wordy arches shape:    hear
                me
            when I am
silent:      gather the boundaried vacancies.