Cover

Humility is the recognition of the asset which every limitation represents.

If you had to live on the edge of a cliff, would the walls of your home be an asset or an obstruction?

Limitation is both.

Limitation is always both asset and obstruction.

This is crucial even and especially in situations where we desire to overcome a limitation.

Within the self, recognizing my limitations as assets means that I humbly encounter limitation as a matter of course.

Without pride saying I should be something greater than I am, I lose the shame associated with being as I am.

I encounter a limitation, and at its core I know it to be a direction toward nourishment, toward sustainability, toward reality.

I consult the wisdom of the limitation.

I honor the asset the limitation represents.

If I wish to overcome the limitation, I replace the asset with a similarly functioning asset. All other change is unsustainable, possibly worse than the original "problem."

Directed outward, I honor my loved ones when I view their limitations as assets.

Where my partner is limited, I get to show him my love!

Where my loved ones falter, I get to cover them!

Loving someone does not mean I rub their nose in all their faults, it means I seamlessly cover them where I adore to do so, and remain present and understanding if and when they encounter painful consequences as a result of their limitations.

I will not spend my precious moments with my loved ones punishing them, shaming and blaming them, rubbing their nose in their mistakes, and then earnestly claim I love them well.

I COVER my loved ones. Where they falter, I consider it a privilege to make it as if they never did.

The reality of devotion does this without martyrdom, in the savagery of true intimacy, which is willing to be present for it ALL.

I don't cover my loved ones because they need it or because they can't handle the consequences of their limitations.

I cover my loved ones because that is what it means to act in a loving way toward them. That is the way I get to love them in this precious and limited time we have together, so long as it feels like love from me.

If it accrues resentment, depletes me, or causes me injury, I've fallen back into unloving practices, making myself their victim, making them my perpetrator.

I cover my loved ones, most of all, from the cruel stories of my own mind, which would blame them for the pain of my regular existence, for the burden of taking the actions of daily life, for the ways my love might get into their lives, the ways they leave open in innocence and vulnerability, trusting me to be gentle.