“Look around you.  Look into the faces of everyone around you.  They are all reflections of you.”

This beautiful statement was made as a woman stood and looked into the faces of 200 souls- who looked back at her and reflected the love and compassion she was feeling in that moment, amplified back to her 200 times.  There was a palpable, unmistakable aura of unity and connection- an energy of which flowed through us all.

This statement is universally true for anyone, at any time.  Look around you.  What do you see?  What you see is a reflection of you.

Outer experience is a reflection of inner reality.  Another way to say this is that whatever thoughts or feelings we are having towards the world around us are a reflection of how we feel within ourselves, or about ourselves.

Can it be that simple?  For a long time I didn’t think so.  I resisted the idea that I am 100% responsible for the way I feel.  What would happen if I stopped blaming everyone around me for the way I feel?  What would happen if I stopped making people around me “wrong”, and judging them?

In short- a miracle.

It’s taken me a while.  It takes courage for me to take responsibility for the way I feel- and even more to look within at the basic judgments and beliefs which are at the core of those feelings.  And the healing- that is less an act of courage and more an act of acceptance, surrender and- in the end- Grace- as I release judgments and beliefs which were at the root of my own self-imposed suffering.

Now the world is a litmus test for me.  And every test an opportunity.

My first litmus test in the morning are my dogs, as they invariably smother me with affection.   Do I accept their love, see it within them, and within me, and love them back?  Or do I get annoyed and push them away?  If it’s the latter, I know I have some internal work to do.  I go outside- take a deep breath- and reconnect.

My family then wakes up, and now I have my second litmus test.  Morning isn’t the best moment for my teenagers.  Regardless of how they are being- do I hold them in my loving and compassion- or- if they are more moody than usual- do I take it personally and feel something much less than compassionate towards them?  In the past, taking my teenagers’ attitude towards me personally was, in fact, a deep rooted judgment- about myself.  Often this did not bring out the best in me- because sometimes the hurt within us manifests as anger or frustration.

So my second litmus test- my family- is a wonderful opportunity to see if my being is clear of self-judgments or beliefs which result in the withholding of my loving energy.  Can I hold my teens in loving compassion, regardless of how they are being?

Now that’s a test.

My third, and final litmus test of every day is when I venture outside into the world.  How do I view the people around me?  Am I annoyed by the lady in the check-out counter who is counting her hundreds of pennies to pay her bill?  Am I judging someone who may not look or act in a way which, in the past, I thought was “normal” or “right”?  When others have ideas or points of view which differ from my own, do I get angry, hold them in contempt, and sit indignantly in my righteousness?  Does the slow driver in front of me piss me off?

If any of these are true (and I rarely go through a day without at least something irritating me)- I know I have something to work out- some underlying belief about myself or about the way the world “should be”- something to heal within me- to bring me into a life of greater peace.

The whole world is a reflection of me.  That is such a blessing.  If I can’t see the love, the miracle, in everything and everyone around me, then I am not seeing the love, and the miracle, in me.

When I finally release the limiting beliefs which obstruct the loving within me, I am finally free to see the loving in everyone else.

“Look around you.  Look into the faces of everyone around you.  They are all a reflection of you. ”

What do you see?