Loving Me, Loving You

This is as good a time as any to remind folks of the celebratory nature of this holiday inspired by the greeting card industry and devoted to our loved ones. I write as a response to the love that I feel for everyone, around the world and those who directly influence my tiny part of it. If I wasn't in love with all of humanity, I would probably remain silent and fully expect the shit to hit the fan sometime within the next five minutes. Instead, I have invested myself in hope, in compassion and in the lives of others in myriad ways that enrich and sustain the earth, her creatures and humanity generally. In addition to these high minded investments, I also try to invest as much as myself as possible in the lives of friends and family. I try to wear my heart on my sleeve as it were, so that others can see clearly my desire for them to benefit from my actions.

Those who have read my writing will attest to the fact that the things I rail against most harshly are not people, but concepts. Ideas that dehumanize those who "believe" in them. I try to reflect compassion and love for those who are oppressed by them and want to liberate humanity from the terrible outcomes that flow from either primitive attitudes, lies those attitudes are based on, or outdated ways of understanding our world, the results of stupidity, or misunderstanding what it means to be a success within our current milleau.

We each have the power to transform ourselves and for those among us who have not mastered self-love, I try to encourage qualitative change on a variety of levels that can lead to self-realization. Creating within one self a "me" that can be believed in, a persona who deserves to be loved and a relationship with the godhead goes a long way to being able to love oneself. I firmly believe that this, in turn, leads one to be able to love others as well. If we are deficient in self-love, echoes of that dissonnance will reverberate through any and all relationships that we may form in our lives and discord will be the result of the majority of them.

With each passing day, and sometimes within the course of hours, my life is enriched by the love others show me and through reciprocation, I hope that my love for them is felt as well. I used to think I was just creepy or gullible, but as I have grown, I have learned that love is not to be feared, but cultivated. The crowds in Egypt recently banded together to demand justice. They had compassion for one another and were tired of suffering at the hands of a corrupt leader. It was evident throughout their protest that they were not there out of hate, although they hated the oppression, but out of a sense of love for one another, their country, and would not be squelched, demeaned, baited into violence, and most importantly, without being taken seriously. Love truly means letting go of fear.

As a child, and throughout my life, I have fully expected to be martyred. Many of my ideas are instantly unpopular. Many take offense without understanding my meaning. Most have not heard enough background information to make sense of many of my ideas. As with all new ideas and information, as you may know, first it is ridiculed and violently protested, then it is questioned and finally it is accepted as self evident. Think of the last time you had to tell someone about the death of another person...the first reaction is "No!" Then they may ask, "How did it happen." Then, later, they will pass on the bad news, finally accepting this new reality. I have always been curious about why power and controll exist. Even before I knew the terms, I had seen many lives ruined by what I saw as mal-adaptive behavior. The violence that people were willing to perpetrate upon one another were both confusing and astopunding to my sensibilities. I'm sure we have all seen the same difficulties played out in different ways, but to truly love ourselves and one another, we need to band together like the folks in Tahrir square and say we are not standing down until the violence ends. We will not stand for another victim to be assaulted and we will not give up in the fight for what is right.

I Love loving you. I am truly blessed by the sharing that we are afforded while we are both here on Earth. I long to share what I have learned to be true during the course of a lifetime and I hope that it can ease suffering around the globe. Perhaps, in time, we can learn to love one another more deeply and reflect that love in our every action. Until we do, I will keep trying to inspire the kinds of change that led me to take the first steps toward self realization and especially those that confirmed for me the fact that loving all life and the infinite wisdom of the earth itself is a good first step toward being aboe to love one self. Please, sned this to a friend, your lover, perhaps a stranger who you care about and let it remind them daily that you care about them like no other. Blessings, prosperity, long-life and Peace!