Hints of Gladness: Love and Power
It's all Love. Love is All
Ramblings about love...
Please permit me to ramble about love.
Take what you like and leave the rest...
I’m starting out my day wondering
why I don’t take St. Paul's statement
”if you don’t have love you don’t have anything”
more seriously.
The Beatles seemed to get it.
“All you need is love.” - Not one of my favorite Beatles songs, but still, they got it.
Why don't I get it?
As I was walking this morning
it dawned on me that
my view of love
isn’t expansive and inclusive enough.
_ _ _ _ _
But first, a few observations about where I’m standing.
Hints of gladness...
It’s raining hard at the moment.
I’m standing next to the Inlet.
I see geese and ducks.
I see the raindrops hitting the surface of the still water.
I have an umbrella so my
upper body is dry and I'm noticing
that my pants are getting wet.
In spite of the outer circumstances,
MY SOUL is enjoying being out here.
It (my soul) delights in the silence and the solitude.
It delights in the pace of nature.
It delights in the sights and sounds
and the fresh, cool air.
It delights in the fact that
I’m just standing here,
breathing.
In reference to what I wrote above,
can I say that my soul loves this?
This was a helpful thought process today…
Maybe I don’t quite "get love“
because I’m looking at it too specifically
rather than looking at ALL THINGS as Love.
If I accept that all things are inside Love,
then it helps me to see that even
small things and seemingly insignificant things
are Love because they’re all included in love.
If I'm looking at things
from the specific thing out,
instead of reminding myself
that all things are
included in divine Love, (outside in?)
then it's much harder to see that thing
as included in divine Love.
All I'm saying is
if I want to have a more loving perspective
and take loving action.
it's helpful to connect with divine love first.
For example…
This morning I got a little snarky about some of the work I have to do today - I didn't feel like working which is a feeling of resistance I struggle with almost every day. (People that I work for please don’t hold that against me). To apply the thought that all things are included in divine love I reminded myself that ALL IS LOVE - "everything belongs" and the feeling of not wanting to work immediately dissolved. In my case, writing an email, or blog post for a client becomes a divine act of love without me having to try and make it so. It just is love because it is included in the ALL. It's a loving act without me even trying. My role is to surrender to love and let love take the lead.
Does that make sense? It's hard to describe, but I know for today what I've described is a helpful process.
When I start with ALL and LOVE,
then, I can see how even the rain
and the fact that it’s making my pants wet is love.
Maybe not the part about my pants, :)
but we desperately need water and rain don't we?
Many non-dual teachers say
separation is an illusion.
They say this because duality is a huge barrier when it comes to love.
Whenever we say love is this, and not that
we're creating separation with the Universe.
And, as I once saw in a vision,
everything is connected,
so as I said earlier it all belongs.
I may not like it, whatever it is,
but that doesn’t matter.
And, if I don’t like something
in my own circumstances,
I have the free will to change it.
Even my energy can be altered,
or how I see a particular thing,
or the story I’m telling myself.
And why not throw love into the mix?
WHY NOT INCLUDE LOVE IN THE MIX?
Loving action comes from
identifying and connecting with Love.
When we take on the identity of love
we are much more likely to
perform loving actions.
Contrast identifying with divine love and the actions someone might take who identifies with power and then takes action. The person identified with power, i.e being powerful as their main identity and motivation, is much more likely to be motivated by exercising power over others when they take action. This is why considering our identity and motivation for doing things is so important.
If I want to be a more loving person
I need to identify with Love,
instead of power.
If I identify with Love,
then I will be much more likely
to see the world in a loving way
and take loving action.
If I identify with power
and having control over people,
then I’ll be much more likely
to try and control others
and do all I can to be more powerful.
Jesus, MLK, and Gandhi
all taught us to love first
and let go of our desire for power.
Why?
Love.
_ _ _ _ _
Evening Hints…
