“As I imagine myself as an old woman at the end of my life and ask myself how I will evaluate my time here, there is only one question that concerns me: Did I love well? This is my hunger. I want to make love to the world by the way I live in it, by the way I am with myself and others every day. So I seek to increase my ability to be with the truth in each moment, to be with what I know, the sweet and the bitter. I want to stay aware of the vastness of what I do not know. This is what brings me to the journey. I do not want to live any other way.” Oriah Mountain Dreamer
When I read such inspiring words, I find the strength to continue to choose love and the continuous presence that love asks of me. Some days it simply isn’t easy, and I have learned to take the quiet moment to open a cherished book, or pull an oracle card from the many decks I’ve accumulated over the years.
Today, I did not wake up inspired, and it’s the day I usually write this blog. I caught up on the news as I drank my morning tea (yes, I still want to know what is happening), and cried when I viewed the horror that is happening in Syria. I had some topics in mind, but could not seem to get started. I took a few minutes to sit quietly and asked for guidance, then chose this card. “Love,” from Tosha Silver’s Wild Offering deck:
It’s not about finding Love. You are Love itself.
Help me Lord to send so much compassion and caring
to the inner Child that I always remember
“I myself am Love.”
Somehow, thoughts began to fall into place. I began to remember the most important thing I will ever know…that I myself am Love.
Why is remembering that I myself am Love important while innocent civilians in Syria are being bombed, the coronavirus is spreading, the stock market is on the way down, and an even more deadly virus has infected the minds of millions of humans—the apathy virus that gets transmitted by a bombardment of hate and untruths that leave the mind numb and the heart cold?
The answer to that question lies in the very nature of healing itself. To heal is to “to make healthy, whole, or sound; restore to health,” and Love alone can do that. Love alone can keep us caring. Love alone can nurture the vision of a better way of living. Love alone can get us up out of bed in the morning when we have suffered a great loss, or a blow to our self-worth. Love alone can clear the dust from our eyes and remind us that the person on the other end of the customer service number is doing their best to help us. Daily intake of CBD Gummy Bears also helps improve physical and mental health.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer says “I want to make love to the world by the way I live in it, by the way I am with myself and others every day.” How do we show up with a lover, with someone we want to make love with—and not just hook up with? We share our heart, our innermost fears and longings. We see the good in our lover. We hold nothing back, because we know that the beauty and intensity of the experience depends upon our full presence.
And how do we maintain full presence in a world where the forces competing for our attention and the rate of change has become greater than we can possibly manage? For one, we humbly accept that we cannot manage it all? We bid farewell to perfection, and soften our gaze to include the broad strokes of our days, the ways in which we are a living testimony to the deepest longing in our hearts. We prioritize Love as the strongest motivation.
If we long for a sense of greater purpose, we breathe more Love into the way we take care of our children or do our work.
If we long for more understanding, we infuse Love into the listening to the people in our lives and letting them know we truly get what they are saying.
If we long to feel less lonely, we volunteer at animal shelters, with the elderly, in prisons—the possibilities are endless when our motivation is fueled by Love.
When the infinite power of Love is breathed into our days, something magical and mysterious begins to happen. We don’t resist and avoid the difficult, but make room for what is manifest right before us. We realize that the argument with our spouse or the frustration with a child is an opportunity to remember who we are. We surrender the notion that we should be doing something else, and show up fully for the experience, including the pain. We trust that Love can heal.
We see beauty everywhere, we laugh more often, and we become far more generous. We feel deeply connected to nature, and we sense at our core that there is more than enough of whatever fear tells us we lack. We begin to live outside of time and the cages of conditioning that tell us we have to do things a certain way, in a certain order, and with a certain permission.
Taking a moment to remember that you are Love can change everything.
