By knowing myself, I know you.
Because I know the place in me where I am shallow,
I can see and accept the shallowness in you.
Because I know my own tendency to narcissism,
I can recognize and overlook the narcissism in you.
Because I have struggled to learn to love myself despite my own pettiness,
I am able to find a smile to offer in response to yours.
And to the degree I have been able to feel my own pain,
I can feel yours.
My teachers on this journey are present no matter what direction I face,
and irregardless of the disguises I attempt.
And since I have found escape from myself impossible,
I no longer try.
Instead, to stop the running,
I have studied compassion as a practice.
It teaches me peace in the midst of war,
shows me the joy laying under the sorrow,
and blesses me with a growing sense of interconnectedness to all existence.
But its greatest gift is the disappearing of the fear of non-existence.
For herein I have found the freedom to Love.
Even myself, and even you.
How could it be otherwise?
Follow the ecstasy into pure silence and you will see.
By knowing yourself, you will know me.