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Welcome back Chuck, Love IS a CHOICE. There is much power in what you said. I applaud your courage to say it. It is hard to see the benefits of a condition that is progressively causing more and more torment in our lives. To do so requires a maturity, and a sense of hope NOT based on what is clearly seen. CHOOSING LOVE may be difficult, and is often like flowing against the flow in a river. Choosing love causes us to grow. Guilt motivates well, but only temporarily. Anger gives us tremendous bursts of energy, but only eats away at our core. Love sees us through to the other side! Like the line in the movie "The Iron Mask" ... "I wear the mask, it does not wear me"! Love IS a choice! David Meigs [log in to unmask] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles E Murray" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 8:31 AM Subject: One Choice > I'm back from a 5 day camping trip and back on the list. > > I was with 150 men who are in one or another stage of recovery from what > one source calls a "hopeless state of mind and body." > > I was asked to give a talk to this group, plus a couple dozen local > residents of Mamoth Lakes, last Saturday night. > > Not many years ago the anxiety over getting up and talking to such a > group would have been overwhelming, and even more so if my PD were at the > stage it has reached. I didn't hesitate for a moment, however, and the > talk went well. Here is the crux of what I shared. > > In each moment we have a choice and it is a simple one. We can choose > Love, or we can choose fear. There is nothing sinful or "wrong" about > the choice for fear, it merely brings with it the consequences of itself. > Choosing fear usually results in isolation, anger, resentment, guilt, > pride, greed, depression and other such unhappy sensations. The > judgments of and demands upon others which we make from fear cause > hostility and separation. > > Choosing Love brings peace, connection, a sense of oneness with all > things, kindness, compassion, and service for free and for fun which > perpetuates the connection with others and makes joy a constant > experience. > > When I choose to judge any person, place, thing or situation as > unacceptable to me (unworthy of being loved), that is a choice for fear, > and as such it robs me of the serenity and joy which the choice for Love > brings as a natural consequence of Itself. The most depressed folks I > know share a common trait of withholding love from themselves (and here I > am not speaking of the chemical based CD common to us, which, when it > responds to drug therapy, goes away). > > I know how nauseating the next comment will be to many, but Love requires > that I share my gratitude to Parkinson's disease for teaching me more > about living in the now that all the meditation, reading and desire of my > past could accomplish, and for broadening the opportunities to choose > Love on a daily basis. Parkinson's has taken me from a place where the > winner between Love and fear was an issue too close to call, to where I > feel comfortable in saying that Love is the odds on favorite to carry me > to the finish line of this Earth experience. In a word, I accept my PD > as an invaluable teacher. > > There was a time not long ago when fear would have frozen my finger over > the send key (fretting about being perceived as prideful, arrogant, > etc.), but not this morning. This morning Love tells me that those in > touch for a moment with the Love within will respond with love, and those > too in touch with fear in the moment will have a fear based reaction and > move on; but perhaps with a little seed planted. > > The one thing I have come to know for sure, we are all children of Love, > so my choice today is really no choice at all, but to ask, in each > situation I encounter, "What does Love wish me to do?" > > Love > Chuck