Please know that I am so aware of the painful, devastating, and lingering effect that the COVID-19 virus has had on our planet, our social and cultural fabric, and our loved ones, and ourselves. I recognize that for all of us, this process has been at the least disruptive and for many fatal. So, my writings are by no way to diminish this impact, but to discuss a process that I recognize as emerging from this devastation. This process is one of an expanding consciousness, a growing awareness of our fragile nature. Not that we are weak, but that we are becoming stronger in our fragileness.
Through the reality of this challenging and devastating time, we as a culture have awaken to a deeper respect for life itself. We might find ourselves more careful and thoughtful of our own health and of the health of those around us. We have grown to care more, we take measures, not only for our own wellbeing, but for the wellbeing of those around us. We have become more sensitive to the needs of others, more courteous, more giving, less about ourselves and our egotistical desires and more gracious and forgiving of ourselves and others.
However, underneath, we might continue to suffer from the fears that promote our insecurity, our doubts driven by the ambiguity of our future. We are reluctantly exposed to new information that fuel those doubts, data of numbers rising, of continued deaths, about rebellious noncompliance and social unrest, perhaps also driven by our same insecurity of life. For many we are unable to distance ourselves from these compelling perceived fearful realities.
But what if we were to hold onto the nature and purpose of life itself, if we could move into the energy that fuels the purpose for living, then we could weather and inoculate ourselves against the very fears that want to destroy our primary purpose for existence. And what is that purpose? Some say our purpose is to love each other… such a simple yet profound concept. Our existence in the world begins with that purpose. When a baby is born, both the baby and the mother fall into that very energy without thought or question, that love will be the foundational fabric for the lifelong existence of two individuals, who become merged into one through that fabric of love.
Through the fabric of love and through a union with others, we can become one with each other. Our very whole is greater than any part, our very whole is our force, and our immunity is our miraculous power of being. But, how do we practice this love? For everyone knows this word, yet everyone may have a different understanding of this word called LOVE.
I hear many proclaim to love others, and yet turn right around and complain of someone or some group. Other times they confuse love with romantic love, emotional attachment, and conditions of love. When the attachment is gone or the conditions are not met, the love ends. What is that?
So here are some challenging concepts: Love only flows one way, out of us and towards others. It is not meant to be received from other individuals. Conceptually we receive that energy of love freely from perhaps a higher power, source etc. and we let it flow out from us toward others. Love has no condition or expectation, in this form of love, we want nothing, and no one deserves to have it, not even ourselves. So, we give it freely as we receive it. Love is not measured by giving it to only those individuals we like, it is measured by giving it to those we struggle the most with… therein lies the true measurement of love, as well as the expansion of our consciousness through recognizing our own vulnerabilities… it is NOT EASY. ALWAYS EVASIVE. INCOMPLETE AND IMPERFECT SO… LETS PRACTICE.