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Dear friends,
What is love? Since I have nothing else to do today, I thought I'd settle that question today once and for all. Next month, I'll tackle the
meaning of life.
Yes, I'm kidding.
Here are two pennies about love (feel free to share your own!)
Love is In the Noticing
Love is found in the noticing of things. Noticing the lines and colors of a spring flower, you can see the intricacies of one little life expression. You can see how a beautiful life has emerged through soil and dirt and in the company of worms -- the stuff of a flower before its blooming.
Notice a human being like this, and you will find love. In
relationships, we get to know the shadow side --the soil through which
every human beings grows -- and we get to know the blooming.
If you focus on the soil, you miss the blossom. Imagine going to a flower show, and only paying attention to the dirt.
Notice the lines on a friend's face. Notice the contours of a lover's shoulder. In the noticing, you see the complex and intricate ways that a human being gets expressed. Notice how a friend eats their salad. Notice how a family member chooses what to do with their hair.
We have all come up through the same soil. Notice everything with compassion.
Love is self-reflective. Forgive yourself of your own faults (the ground through which you grow) so that you can forgive another person of theirs. (Yes that is in the Lord's Prayer, but reversed).
Love is not narcissistic. The narcissist only sees himself and his own needs. Practice seeing yourself reflected all around you, in those you love. Know at the same time that you are also a reflection of those around you.
The truth of the matter is that inside these finite skins, we contain a vast, complex and colorful flower that is the flower of life itself.
If you focus on that, you will find how much you are capable of loving.
...
This month has father's day in it. I acknowledge and thank those of you who are fathers, for what you have given. May we all notice the beauty of our own fathers. Even if their job was wracked with mistakes, (as all human jobs are), may we notice how they blossomed or still do blossom in their own way, contributing their own unique color to our lives.
Om Namah SivayaCynthia
Cynthia Yoder
Intuitive Coaching
and Sound Healing
Extraordinary Coaching
Extraordinary Means Tel. 609-799-6071
mail@cynthiayoder.com
www.cynthiayoder.com |
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Life in the Slow Lane (a free periodic mailing)
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The Outside Within
The great naturalist John Muir, said that when he went out for a walk,
he would stay out until sundown, because "going out was really going
in." He saw in his relationship with nature, the relationship
between all things. He is said to have loved nature like a devotee.
Love opens in us a quality of spaciousness that holds all
of life. It may be love of trees, or love of a fellow human being.
It may be love of work, or love of play, or love of music. When we fully
devote ourselves to what or whom we love, this space opens in our hearts.
Everyone has had a timeless moment-- a moment in which we have lost ourselves
so completely that time passes without our knowing it. This happens to
some people when they are shopping! In this kind of immersion, the mind
drops its self-judgment, its lists, its worry about the future, and you can let
go into a deeper quality of space and time.
John Muir said this about trees: "I never saw a discontented tree.
They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they
travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with
every wind, going and coming like ourselves..."
The tree is not discontent because it holds fast to what it loves -- the
earth!
What do you love? What do you hold fast to? What anchors you to this
world?
Here are some ideas:
1. Take two hours to completely immerse yourself in an activity you love
but haven't done for a while.
2. If you are in a relationship with someone, sit down and write out all
of the things that you love about that person, and have loved over time.
Drop the "yes, but" stories, and go for the love. Write at
least twenty things. As you write, drop your awareness to your heart so that
you write from the heart and not the head.
3. Write down all of the things that you love about your life. This
includes the structures around you, the nature, the people, the activities.
Again, drop your awareness deeper into the heart, so that you are writing from
there.
4. Contemplate love. What is it? How does it come into a
person's life? Does it come from the outside, or does it come from the
inside? Is there any difference?!
.....
For more "Life in the Slow Lane" writings, visit my blog, magicdreamhouse.com.
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From our archives...
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 The Song of Creation
When Jehovah crawled out of
the shadow of what had not yet been made,
the light
that emerged from his throat was a song
he could not help singing.
The song came from Jehovah's heart of hearts.
The song -- pure
light itself -- was so terrible in its intensity
that Jehovah gasped.
In
that gasp, the cosmos were born.
This is why, whenever a person tunes their ears to hear the song of creation -- whether in their own heart or in the heart of another -- there is a gasp.
We call this inspiration.
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