Today’s meditation was written by Cathy Self, Senior Vice-President for the Baptist Healing Trust.
"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." – Thomas Merton
Writing is not a gift that I perceive as being natural or easy in my experience. I do, however, appreciate the value and opportunities that writing creates in my journey to live Love. Most of all, I am growing in appreciation for what Henri Nouwen suggets about the impact of telling our story – "Each human person is unique and original, and nobody has lived what we have lived. Furthermore, what we have lived, we have lived not just for ourselves but for others as well. Writing can be a very creative and invigorating way to make our lives available to ourselves and to others. We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told. We may discover that the better we tell our stories, the better we will want to live them."
The call to live Love authentically asks that I be present in the moment to myself as well as to others. I sometimes find that a challenge. I get so caught up in what I need others to think of me that 
when I am feeling angry or tired or sad I find myself putting on a mask and presenting a false front about who I am and what I am feeling. My desire to live Love is still present, but my needs for acceptance and love rise to the surface and take over.
What lies at your core as your greatest need? Maybe, like me, you also need to be accepted and loved, or perhaps understood, or to be accurately heard, or to know you have contributed in a positive way to the lives of others. Love asks only that we be in touch with our own needs and those of others, and that we do our best to meet each other at the point of those needs.
There is great relief in living authentically, of being freed to live Love and to tell my story the way my heart sings it. And when I am willing to be still and listen to that song, I find myself wanting to sing along. As Nouwen said, "…the better we tell our stories, the better we will want to live them." May today find you living fully who you are, and may you be willing to share your story with others.
Journal of Sacred Work 
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