And as you point out, it is a harder place to come from given our thoughts and ideas that are programmed into us by society.

It is beautiful to hear that you have moved more into this space. I too no longer judge even things like weather extremes or world events as bad or good – they simply are. Given this though, I still recognize that there are actions in this world that are more “serving” – i.e. come more from love than fear, greed or what not.

Here you’re talking about not coming from a place of ego-reactivity involving deception about a bookcase. Years ago I first read Thich Nhat Hahn – his The Miracle of Mindfulness. There was a passage which, at the time, I found completely mind boggling. In it, the author expresses equal compassion for both a rapist and his victim.

I have to say that at times I still find that one a tall order – not to come from a reactive mindset in relation to the worst sorts of things people do. But I now definitely know the place Hahn was coming from, and now it’s mainly where I come from too.

As for that site, I haven’t had a chance to read Barbara’s article yet, but I have heard of that site or sites like that before. I think I checked mine too, but don’t remember at this time what the amount was.

What I can tell you Sara is 2 things –

1. Are you or me or most of the people out there planning to sell their site this very minute or in fact is that why they are blogging, as a means to just make a quick sell and that is it? I understand that most of us do want to make some money from our blogs, but I personally think there is much more reward from holding onto them and making money than selling them. For some of us, our blogs are our voice, not someone else’s.

And

2. Comparing how much mine is worth vs yours accomplishes nothing the way I see it. So what if mine is worth less or more than yours. Does that make me or my content better or worse?

All of this is so relative and as we grow spiritually, we learn to disconnect from these limiting and comparative paradigms. In the end and always the race, any race or the journey as some like to see it, is only with ourselves and against ourselves.

So yes, I love your thinking telling “your ego to jump in the lake” – LOL – when we disconnect from our egos we realize we are the all, and need no comparison to anything else. And yes your blog is priceless and offers the world something so unique that no other blog can. You know why? Because it comes from Sara and there is only one unique you out there.

In the end, this is indeed an area of our lives that I think requires constant growth through conscious living.

It also lands at a perfect time for me. I just went to Blogging without a Blog and Barbara has this site you go to to calculate the worth of your blog. The people before me had done it and come up with pretty large estimates, such as $10,000 and higher for some.

Mine was $2,822.70. Now, I had a choice. I could choose to get upset because my ego expected this value to more or I could look at the value I get from my site that’s goes beyond monetary? It’s a choice of what’s really important to me?

So, I told my ego to go jump in the lake today and I’m proud of it. I wasn’t going to feel badly about this. To me, my blog is priceless — I get to follow my passion to write as well enjoy my regular visitors and the wonderful blogging community I’m in. I liked making this choice and when I did, the ego stuff evaporated.

However, as this is a life lesson for me, I’m sure I’ll still be working on expectation in the future, but I thank you for reminding me that we do choices on how we respond and what we expect:~)

So my advice is always to do what you do for you, love it, own it and expect nothing. I am not a pro at this yet, but I learn as I go, and feel blessed to be able to share that with you.

So thank you for giving me that opportunity.

That is awesome to hear – me and Markus read A New Eath together too and it was transformational for us too! Today I really encourage couples to go through new material together, it definitely helps both grow in the same direction, rather than one person this way and another that way….

And yes I think there is something more to talk about definitely when it comes to “assumptions” and “expectations”. As conscious as I try to be to live without expectations, I have to say, it is a challenge indeed. They seem to be all around us in society. At least like you I am happy they are pretty much non existent in my relationship.

LOL – I will keep that in mind if I have any babies – thank you Suzen :)

I only wish someone had told me when I was “expecting” a baby that that should be the LAST of my expectations with this little spirit. It would have made parenting less stressful!

Great post! Lots to think about here – thanks again for all your sharing, it’s wonderful!
hugs
suZen

Unconditional love is a funny thing. We have religions and parents and others who preach about it, but fall very short on actually showing it or living it. Unconditional means that we will love that person no matter what.

See now a lot of people have a hard time with that one. How can I love someone if they do x, y or z to me?

What many people do not understand is that unconditional love does not mean you have to be with the person. If someone does something which does not add in a positive way to your being, then by all means you should remove yourself from the situation. However, nothing says you cannot still “love” that person or at least not think of them in negative ways. We may not agree with what actions a person is doing here in the physical, but their spiritual self is pure love, as is ours. How can we not love that?

And you are right, a lot of things get “ruined” when we start expecting the other person to “do” something or “be” a certain way. Love the person because you do, not because of what they can offer you. Let them be themselves and allow you to be yourself and see what transpires. This usually gets easier as we grow up, but I still know a lot of adults, ones even in marriages who are not themselves with their partner or allow the other to be themselves, or let expectations ruin a good and beautiful thing.

You are so welcome for this and anything else that you found on this site that helps – my vision is for a world that is truly capable of unconditional love and I know that is not unrealistic, given that at our core – we are love.