Souls Hum to the Whole Note of LOVE
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. —Book of Common Prayer
I believe that the human species is striving ever closer to an everyday practice of true LOVE. The kind that was meant to explode into the evolutionary development of us all centuries ago through the life of Jesus Christ. The kind of LOVE that is the root of neighborliness, expressed in compassion and joy. The kind of LOVE that brings out the best of people during a natural disaster or other kinds of emergencies; where someone you never met sprouts angel wings and delivers the kind of mercy that brings you to tears. The kind of LOVE that erodes all division. The kind of LOVE that is beyond visual categorization of skin color, race, religion, culture, or capabilities. The kind of LOVE that emanates from a pure heart and nurtured soul.
The kind of LOVE that recognizes all aspects of life as relatives and the earth as kin—as Francis of Assisi noted in his Canticle of the Creatures:
Praise be you, my Lord, through Brother Sun and Sister Moon and Stars…through Brothers Wind and Air, and all the weather’s moods…through Sister Water…through Brother Fire…through Sister Earth, our Mother who feeds us in her sovereignty….
I watched a short video entitled “I See You.” It had a story line that struck me by its utter simplicity. Demonstrated through simple acts of kindness, the narrator illustrated that we are all seeking love, not the sentimental sensual kind, but the Divine kind rooted in seeing into another’s soul beyond their human features and our prejudices and recognizing the amount of unbelievable risk that takes.
To be seen, really seen, is to allow yourself to feel your own pain and another’s pain as well. Seeing deeply is also an opening to layers of joy that we often overlook. In those moments we discover what it really means to be alive in this world without barriers, judgements and distractions. —Daniel Emuna
These are words worth contemplating because it calls out our vulnerabilities and eventually requires actions that flow from the heart and allow us to truly express our humanity, so that giving is not merely a gesture, but an expression of our deepest selves, our inner essence, our solidarity with another human being. With the ego gently given a rest we can revel in the gift of another human being made in the image of God just like us.
What would it be like to spend our days floating from one expression of light to another?
It would mean we wouldn’t spend so much time focusing on the amount of melanin in skin of the person with whom we are conversing, or being distracted by hair texture, clothes, or an accent. Looking into another person’s eyes hastily moves us toward a relationship beyond what we have made up through prior ill-conceived judgments and societal biases. Instead we open ourselves to a moment of exquisite personal experience.
Nonsense you say, “people are different and that’s all there is to it.” I’m not denying human’s differences, I’m suggesting that the social construct that focuses on racial differences is just that and will continue to be used as a tool for division until we awaken to a transcendent way of being that is more harmonious with our essential nature, a way that flows from the inside out, first. That we change our focus to the beauty that exists in everyone, the inner light, that sometimes may need to be drawn out with tenderness and kindness instead of habitual reactions which lead to continual wounding. In today’s fast-paced society where we are rushing around our eyes cast downward, glued to a phone and our thoughts racing along into the next day’s agenda we sometimes act automatically, regretting what we have said or done. We miss the holy ones walking beside us or toward us as suggested by Kurt Vonnegut:
You meet saints everywhere / They can be anywhere / They are people behaving decently/ in an indecent society.
As a dancer I’m kinesthetically aware of energies floating between people and understand, probably more than I care to admit our abilities to shift the tide of the flow of unhealthy energies, if we are paying attention. For me the sequence of life is a dance, that is the gift of the creative process. Each experience is a dance, often a Divine dance and although sometimes the movements of anguish, pain and grief have to be worked through eventually, the inner joy transcends the suffering on most days! Perhaps that is what Barbara Holmes was referencing when she recently said:
No matter the circumstances, we’re called to joy.
And in that joy, we will find enough light and love for ourselves and our neighbors in rays of light and hope.
Diana these words are worth repeating! "As a dancer I’m kinesthetically aware of energies floating between people and understand, probably more than I care to admit our abilities to shift the tide of the flow of unhealthy energies, if we are paying attention. For me the sequence of life is a dance, that is the gift of the creative process. Each experience is a dance, often a Divine dance and although sometimes the movements of anguish, pain and grief have to be worked through eventually, the inner joy transcends the suffering on most days!"