Lennon love

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” ~John Lennon

Today is the 31st anniversary of the death of John Lennon. I remember the moment I heard the news. I don’t know how sad I was, but it was certainly shocking. It was many years after he was gone that I realized how connected I am to John Lennon. He is a kindred spirit. I seem to often find kindred spirits in musicians. And writers.

Part of what I like about the above quote is that he makes being in love sound like the most natural state in the world. And I believe that to be true. The thing I have figured out over the past few years is that the more we come to understand our authentic nature, the more it’s possible to be in love all the time regardless of what types of relationships are involved. The person who refrains from being in love for lack of a romantic partner is a foolish person in my opinion. There is an entire world full of people who need love and if we have it to give, we should, as freely and unconditionally as possible.

Earlier this evening I was thinking about some things and people in my life and I had an overwhelming feeling of love in my heart. Not just for the people who have pleased me and said what I wanted to hear. I felt sincere gratitude for the people I have been hurt by and whom I have hurt. We can’t make it through this life without being hurt and hurting others. That makes those people very valuable. Of all the people on earth that we could possibly meet, the ones who show up in our lives are the ones we are meant to know…for a reason. I believe that reason involves honoring each other for the thing we share in common.

Christmas is supposed to be the season of love. I really hope more people find the love inside themselves and let it pour out into the world.

God bless John Lennon

 

 

 

When the going gets really tough

So I have a job interview this week.  I really want to go back to work.  I’ve worked since I was a teenager and these periods of unemployment in the past couple of years have been hard.  The big question I am trying to answer without freaking out is: Will this job manifest in time?

I have been doing this for the past couple of months.  Barely a reprieve from worry and yet miracles have been happening pretty consistently.  It’s funny I can see that in retrospect and even sometimes as the miracles are happening, but not when they are on their way.  When I am in waiting mode it feels like nothing will ever get better.

Lately I have been watching more news than I normally do.  I’m feeling ill at ease and sort of helpless, which probably means I shouldn’t be watching the news.  I took a break from most news for a couple of years and I think it was a good decision.  It’s not like I completely trust any news source anyway.

The thing that has me feeling weird lately is the reaction to Osama Bin Laden’s violent demise.  I’m not saying that at this time in history we are not better off without him, it’s just that celebrating a violent murder, even of someone who deserves it, makes me uncomfortable.  I hope to make it clear that I am not condemning anyone for celebrating or saying that those who have suffered from Bin Laden’s actions are not justified in feeling relief.  Celebrating violence  just isn’t my thing.  I remember when people in some parts of the world were celebrating after the 9/11 attacks and that was really upsetting.

With our economy in the state it’s in, I would hope for people to take to the streets in favor of some relief from this oppressive poverty so many of us are struggling with rather than with misguided national pride.  It’s not like most of us did anything to deserve the conditions we find ourselves in, there was a carefully crafted financial coup d’etat (to use the words of Michael Moore) that put us where we are.  And the really creepy thing is that some of the very people who orchestrated the collapse of our economy are now blaming poor people for the current economic situation.

I want to clarify calling what we’re in a recession.  This is a depression, not a recession.  Economists who say otherwise are splitting hairs.  And it stands to get worse between the rising gas prices and the natural disasters destroying crops all over the place.  These are the same kinds of conditions that took place in the 1930′s during the great depression.  For some reason, we’re just better at denying it now and many Americans do not have the reasoning power to see through the charade to recognize how they’ve been duped.

Many of these things I have been saying for a long time to people I know well enough to speak frankly with.  There is something sinister going on with corporations and their control of the media and the political process in this country.  There is a reason certain diseases are becoming so prevalent and why others are not being cured as quickly as they should.  Anyone who watches television is bombarded with messages telling them how sick they are and how all the drugs they have been taking for these illnesses are surely not working so they should add new ones.  It’s pretty disgusting.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what I’m talking about.

Sometimes it makes me nervous to watch television because even though I have a fairly high level of awareness and control over my mind, it can’t be good to have those intentions coming at me and my kids.  We are healthy and I mean to keep it that way.

This has turned into a rant.  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, but it’s how I’ve been feeling lately.  I don’t insist I’m right about any of this, lest I offend anyone, but I have frustrations and I would like to see some of these things improve.  John Lennon once said: Today America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself.  True enough, but that might not be a good thing.  Just sayin’…

One of the things I have been wanting to write more about is how challenging it can be to live in this world after a spiritual awakening.  It’s something I have seen a few people write about in blogs, but there isn’t a whole lot of information out there that addresses this.  When a person awakens and recognizes the truth of unity, it makes it impossible to live life as it was lived before that realization.

There’s more to it than that (full post forthcoming), but the shift in perspective is one that can rock the foundation of one’s beliefs and after that it takes a while to figure things out.  There was a time when it was much easier for me to hate and blame others.  Now I realize the futility of that.  But at the same time, like the above rant I just wrote, sometimes the truth needs to be expressed, even when it’s ugly.

No matter what we choose to do, whether we choose to watch news or not, blame or not blame, whatever, it needs to be done with love.  It’s the only way things will ever improve in a lasting way.  As I often say: we are all in this together.  The golden rule is not just good manners, it is our salvation.  Do what ya gotta do, but do it in love.  Love will never steer you wrong.  At least real love won’t.

Saint Augustine said:

“Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.”