Real progress is progress in charity, all other advances being secondary thereto.
-Aldous Huxley

What is charity? How do I create progress in charity?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “kindness, natural affection, candour, freedom from censoriousness, imputing good motives when possible, beneficence.”

It is interesting to me that, if one looks at the original Greek of Corinthians I, Paul speaks of Divine Love (Agape), which has been translated in the King James Bible into the word “charity.” So charity can be translated to mean Divine Love, or unconditional love.

Unconditional love means loving no matter what. That might seem obvious, but how does that look in action? It means that, regardless of your choices, regardless of what I wish you would choose instead, I accept you and I love you. Unconditional love lives in the heart, not the head; it has no expectation of the beloved other than they be exactly what they are; it is not logical, or based on past experience. It just is.

That’s hard for a human, which is why I call it Divine Love. I can aspire to love that way though. If I truly wish to move forward in the world, my starting point must be the realization of unconditional love, for myself and for others. That means putting down the baggage of “should” and judgment and “not enough” that I have been carrying around with me. The heaviness of that burden will always keep me from reaching my goals.

Where am I not in acceptance of who I am, what I have accomplished, and what I have overcome?
What are three things that I can do or decisions I can make, today, to allow myself to put down the burden of self-judgment?
What is preventing me from making the choice to change?

A really nice exercise that was handed down to me by Dr. Theresa Bullard-Whyke is to write a list of 100 things I like, admire, or respect about myself. It’s an inward-facing gratitude list of sorts, that helps me to love and accept myself more fully. You might try it.