Most likely you are familiar with the phrase, “love is blind.” This expression is first found in Chaucer's The Merchant's Tale, written between 1387 and 1400. The phrase did not come into common usage until William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, in the scene where Benvolio says to Mercutio, “Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.” Mercutio responds that if love is blind, then it is not real love.

In this episode, I ask us to think about why real love is not blind.

• Love is caring and affection displayed as the positive behaviors of our integrity in action;
• The truth is, our integrity cannot and should not withstand all things;
• While all relationships have challenges, affection expressed positively, as our soul’s integrity, does not tolerate the dishonest or abusive actions of other people; and
• No matter if someone is a family member or a close friend, we do not have to hang in there, allowing them to dump their anger, self-centeredness, and emotional unconsciousness onto us. 

Okay, I imagine you’re saying to yourself, “Hey, this lasagna lady is nuts.”  I get it since close encounters of the third kind are highly suspect. Unless of course, you are discussing the matter with Giorgio A. Tsoukalos or Erich von Däniken. But, if you’re not a fan of Ancient Aliens or have not read Chariots of the Gods, my experience will seem odd. You’d certainly have doubts if the only aliens you’ve encountered are in movies or on TV. If you only know the Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans, or Borg of Star Trek fame maybe you would think I’m a six-pack short of a case.

• You can imagine how surreal and strange it must be to grow up with a secret you are not able to share with anyone for fear of being labeled crazy.
• Finding others who share the same experience is comforting because you can’t be crazy when someone, anyone, steps up and says, “Hey, that also happened to me.”
• Each experience you and I have in life is a unique opportunity to grow our sympathy, empathy, and compassion for others.

Do you like lasagna? I do, very much. Honestly and with all modesty I can say my lasagna is to die for. I don’t mean my lasagna will literally kill you. Heavens NO! The expression “it’s to die for” means something is fantastic, incredible, magnificent, and in the case of food over the top delicious. And my lasagna should be first-rate, an award-winning stack of deliciousness because I’ve spent the past 45 years mastering the recipe.

• We don’t get good at anything – cooking, relationships, a job, patience – without practice.
• If we want to be really good at something we must get really good at practicing that something.
• Practice will make us proficient, not perfect. Takes a lot of stress off, doesn’t it?