My friend, ScottStabile, author of Big Love and Just Love, spoke to my heart, as he often does, in a recent post on his new platform Bigger Love with Scott Stabile. He eloquently expressed much of what I, and I suspect many of us, have experienced and possibly continue to experience. With his permission, I share his post below. I trust that it will speak to you, as well.
As you read it, I encourage you to remember the words of
Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore from Keep
a True Lent –
"Love, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal
unity. In expression, it is the power that joins and binds together the
universe and everything in it. Love is harmonizing, constructive power…Love is
that mighty power, that divine quality of God that is expressing through all
[humankind] and cannot be suppressed by any outside force.”
Hi Friends,
Some days I go back and forth by the half hour between deep
trust in life’s unfolding and deep anxiety over the state of our world. One
moment I feel at peace knowing we are moving evermore toward greater
consciousness, and the next I feel anguish in the face of our inhumanity.
Perhaps you can relate.
I sat with a wise friend a couple months ago and spoke of my
nagging despair, my inability sometimes to be with all the warring and hatred,
and how I want to retreat from the world because of it. “No!” he said. “Your
job is not to absorb the insane energy of this planet. Your job is to share your loving
energy with this
planet, and trust in what you have to share.” A simple thought really, and not
one new to me. But the way he said it, with such clarity and urgency, struck
me, registered, entered my being. To be clear, he was not suggesting I ignore
the harsh realities of our world or pretend all is well when it clearly isn’t.
He was reminding me not to get so lost in what’s dark and painful here that I
forget the power of my own light.
A couple days ago the same friend shared the following words, by
L.R. Knost:
Do
not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.
All
things break. And all things can be mended.
Not
with time, as they say, but with intention.
So
go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.
The
broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.
The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you. Now
that’s beautiful.
It’s easy to feel powerless when considering what we can
actually do to create any real change in this world. How bright is our light,
really? Easy to feel like it’s hopeless, that all is lost. But that can never
be the truth, because if we’re here, living and breathing, shining in whatever
way we shine, then all is not lost. In fact, all is possible. I don’t say that
naively. My days as a Pollyanna are long behind me. I just don’t believe we can
ever count out the power of love. Intentional, extravagant, unconditional love.
Has there ever been a more potent force on this planet? I don’t think so. Will there
ever be? Doubtful. We just have to get in the habit of using it. Of becoming
it. Of letting love become us.
I suspect I will always, to some degree, move between trust and
anxiety, peace and despair, where our world is concerned. Look around. We
humans are a profoundly sick species, terrified to reflect honestly on our
delusions and take responsibility for our myriad hypocrisies. We are unwilling
to change our minds and unable to acknowledge our wrongs. Most of us, most of
the time, anyway. Myself included, some of the time, anyway. We are too often
petty and unforgiving and unconscionably violent.
And still, we long for love. To give and receive it. We long to
be seen, and appreciated, and loved for who we are. All of us have this
longing. And so, love will never stop having a hold on us, no matter how
unconscious we become, no matter how committed to hatred and war. Beneath our
vast delusions, beyond whatever vile muck we deny or uncover, love waits.
Ready. Willing. Able. My hope lives in this belief.
I don’t know much for certain, but I know that love remains,
always, everywhere. It is within us, outside of us, ever-present even in its
invisibility. And because it’s everywhere, forever with us, we have access to
it in every moment. We simply have to choose it. To commit to love, and choose
it, throughout each day every day. Intentionally, extravagantly,
unconditionally. Choose love. In our relationships with ourselves, and with
others. In our work, in our activism, in our anger. Choose love. In our connection
to the earth, to our food, to the plants and animals, to the Source that
created and lives within all things. Choose love. We have to be willing to
stand in our light and declare ourselves messengers of love.
Our world is broken, and love is the glue. We are ripped apart
and love is the thread that will mend us. I believe this as much as I believe
anything. Every act of kindness inspires more kindness. My vulnerability
invites you to be vulnerable. Your compassion awakens my compassion. Our
collective courage invites courage in others. We are always affecting each
other. Our love, for ourselves and for one another, is the one thing that
stands to create healing for real. Not with time, but with intention.
Are you ready, willing to stand in your power and love yourself
and everyone else, too? No matter what? I am, and I hope you’ll join me. We
need us.
I love us, and I believe in us,
Scott
Again, the words of Charles Fillmore and an
affirmation for us to use and take to mind and heart,
"I now firmly declare that [Love] is expressing
through me, and that no environment or external condition can hinder it. Any
unloving condition of the world is no bar to my exercise of love; in fact, it
is an incentive.”
For more information on Scott and his work, please
visit his website – ScottStabile.com.
To support Scott’s work and keep up with his inspiring
posts, please subscribe at – ScottStabile.substack.com.
You may also like to consider joining Scott in his
upcoming online workshop – ImagineIt! Create a more fulfilling life with Intentional Visualization –
beginning January 3.
My friend and yours, Robin Hackett, wrote and
recorded a powerful song that reminds us of the power of Love – Listen Here.
Thank you for the reminder, my resolution is to remember to form my responses to life with love as the intention.
ReplyDeleteBrightest Blessings Rev. Howard, This post takes Me into My own thoughts concerning Love. I believe with all I am that We ARE Love and that Love is the most valuable asset to ever possess and with that I also believe that Love is an action word, it is not just something to mull over and put in a catch phrase, it is not something to just want and selfishly possess and utilize. It is something that needs redefining, it is something that needs to be protected, it is something that needs to be respected. It is also someone that needs to be allowed and freed to love in ways that validate self-respect and self-appreciation. Love feels good to both, the giver and the receiver yet it is not to be lightly given or received. Because we live in a society that has accepted it's own chaotic inhumanity it is vital that We protect Love because love is very vulnerable because it is almost always the Light of Someone's Heart and that is what makes love so precious, it is the Light of Someone's Heart. So I implore all to Love & Love deeply yet Love with conscious awareness and self-validation because without those love becomes rhetoric and hard to share.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year
In Loving Light
David - Unable to make this serice due to the gift of snow. But I very much welcomed your words about LOVE - one of the most powerful forces in the world. I, too, follow the "news of the day" regularly, but am intentional about not letting it "drag me down". I'm committed to being an informed citizen and interested in keeping abreast. And I,too, have "been through hell" many times in my personal life. But, thanks to your guidance, and that of others, I try to stay focused on the power, strength, love, and omnipresence of God. The Divine Spirit. Namaste
Delete