Tag Archives: love

Joy! (and more)

Christmas close approaches, and with it a myriad of memories, feelings, and images. 2020 has magnified the importance of the people in our lives, and also our connection to our greater humanity. I started thinking yesterday of words that are most evocative of Christmas for me. The word that tops my list is: JOY

There is definitely a heightened feeling of love and goodwill around me at this time of year. This feeling gives me great joy as people take a little rest from the regular routines, worries, and burdens of every day life. I love to see joy expressed on the faces of people around me.

I think of joy is a life keyword, an evaluator of the world around me. I’m feeling that if our world was better balanced and society fairer, we’d be seeing a lot more joy on an every day basis. This is something for all of us to contemplate for the new year 2021 just ahead. How will we claim and live our joy? And not just our joy, but all of the positive aspects of life that we deserve. These are, after all, our lives. They are precious and they come around only once.

I realize that many people reading this do not celebrate Christmas. But in your own culture, you have celebrations that are sacred, important, beautiful. My partner and I lived in Thailand for some years, and I loved getting to know and taking part in the important traditions there. Loy Krathong (Festival of Light) was my favorite.

So, take a moment to think of your own culture’s sacred traditions and celebrations. What one word is evocative of how you feel as you share those celebrations with family and friends? If you would like to share in the comments, I would love to hear from you.

I send you best wishes for all the joy and blessing your hearts can hold (and more) in 2021.

Free Your Love

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Infinite love already exists in everything that is alive, including you and me. Our love lessons are about removing the obstacles to love. They teach us out how to access, express, and live it. That is, if we choose to learn.

This can feel difficult in a world that is expressing so much dissension and “un-love”. But each of us is a potential key to healing it.

Fear, anger, prejudice… we employ a myriad of padlocks to hold our love hostage. Every experience around love is an opportunity for self-examination. Our souls desire to learn how to love better.

Consider that perhaps the high tension in the world right now is a challenge to each of us to work on unlocking our own love. Together, we can collectively unleash a world of love that has never been seen before.

Inspirational Quotes:

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”
― Anais Nin

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
― Mother Teresa

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
― Mother Teresa

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Photos courtesy congerdesignm and zanna-76, Pexels

Feel Your Essence

Your Eyes, My Eyes

Major world events this year brilliantly illustrate the necessity to broaden our perspective. These situations are highly complex. Why are we as a collective trying to analyze 3-dimensional problems with duality thinking? Many people are feeling displaced, vulnerable, and upset. Other individuals are personally dealing with very different problems than you or I around these circumstances.

It behooves us to show more kindness to the person who may contradict our personal belief system. Also, to allow them the right to voice their different point of view. We as a collective are way too inclined to want everyone to agree with one consensual reality. We may be part of one humanity, but, as individuals we are always entitled to express our sovereign viewpoint. People are forgetting this.

The Bigger View Leads to Better Understanding

Let’s have some respect for each other. In the long run, carefully considering other viewpoints could actually stand the collective in good stead. There are answers in the large gray zone between black and white, if we could all commit to seeing other perspectives. Let’s meet in the middle and discuss them, instead of all this divisive bickering.

Slowly but surely, it’s killing us.

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, “What else could this mean?” ~ Shannon L. Alder

“Sometimes all it takes is a tiny shift of perspective to see something familiar in a totally new light.” ~ Dan Brown

Photo courtesy Oziel Gómez, Pexels

The World You Create

As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” ~ Mahatma Ghandi

Are You Waiting for Change?

It’s so simple really, and yet we persist in believing that other people or institutions are going to change our circumstances for us. We see this tendency when people are looking for life partners. They get swept up in those initial love feelings, and they believe that the other person is going to “complete them” for a lifetime. Divorce statistics say that this sort of thinking is faulty. When we adhere to that philosophy we cheat ourselves from our own soul work and growth. We should be striving to complete ourselves.

It is not someone else’s job to complete us, nor should we be waiting for external forces to change the world for us. Yes, we elect our government officials, and we should be able to have faith in the fact that they will work for our good. Unfortunately, currently we live in a world where we’re feeling increasingly betrayed by the officials we elect.

It’s time to change our thinking towards how we’ll contribute to and make the world a good place. It is so very fundamental. You cannot receive that which you yourself are not willing to give.

You desire more kindness in the world? Be kind.
You desire more love? Be loving.
I could go on with more examples, but you get the idea.

We Must Each be the Change

We build a world around us that is of our own vision and making. That’s not just at a micro level of our immediate surroundings. These behaviors ripple outward. Other people learn from us by example, then together we build a better world. We should also expect from our leaders what we are working to build for ourselves. Otherwise, why should we keep them around?

So now I ask you, what kind of world will you personally choose to build today? Whether you believe it or not, the fate of the world rests in your own hands.