Here is the best advice I could give to anyone: No matter what the situation, love fully, and let your loving self out into the world. To love fully, you have to remember who you are.
If loving were purely an intellectual act, it wouldn’t make sense to love in some of the horrific situations we find ourselves in. We are made of love energy, so it is our nature to love. There is a difference between loving and approving of things that people do that are destructive. And, of course, how we love changes depending on how our love is received. Yet still, we are designed to “let love radiate without concern for results.” That is a powerful act in any circumstance. It is powerful because we are being true to how we are made.
To love in the face of whatever might be happening in life, a person has to face their own humanity and come to terms with all the voices inside them that say it would be better if they held back their expression of love. Our flesh, our humanness, is designed to be the home for the sacredness of love. We are made as a home for love and as an instrument for the expression of love. As a friend of mine says, “Love you are and love you will.” You can’t help it. One way or another, the power of love is at work through you. You are going to love something because you are built to be love in action.
Many years ago, I was in an organizational meeting of Emissaries of Divine Light, feeling totally overwhelmed. I felt incapable of handling the situation. The people weren’t getting along. The person chairing the meeting didn’t seem to value my input and it felt like other people would rather I wasn’t there. It was a small group, so I felt like anything I did or said would be under a microscope. I didn’t think I had any vision or insights to contribute anyway. My insecurities were taking over!
It seemed to me at the time like the best solution was to run or leave, or to go do something that would bring me relief from the tension. In the middle of all those thoughts and feelings, it dawned on me that what the situation really needed was not for me to leave but to bring more of me. I realized that it was difficult for me because I was not fully present and pouring myself out. So I pushed aside all the frustration and decided I was capable of being loving and large in the situation, and all that was seemingly impossible was really an opportunity. I was capable of so much more love than I was pouring into the situation. I went for it and surprised myself. I learned that the frustration I was feeling was a huge gift to me. It reminded me that I was not very present, or I was not really revealing all the magic that I knew was possible because of the presence of love through me.
This is what I learned. As soon as you show up, the magic of love is at hand if you are willing to bring it. We all bring a little different magic. Your magic is unique to you. But whoever brings the magic, it is the magic of the universal power of love. When love is present through a person, things happen that surprise the mind. It is like the sleight of hand that a magician uses. The conscious attention of the audience is on the one hand where he put the quarter, and suddenly the quarter is in the other hand. The audience is surprised because their minds didn’t follow the switch. In life, the mind often thinks it knows how things are supposed to go. It knows some of how it’s gone before; it knows some of what should be expected, and that is what it is paying attention to. When love shows up—when we show up—creation and magic are in our hands and we bring the unexpected.
In the middle of July, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés spoke to our community at Sunrise Ranch. Dr. Estés is the well-known author of Women Who Run With the Wolves, and Untie the Strong Woman: Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Love for the Wild Soul. Dr. Estés has done work in treating post-traumatic shock, and she was offering training to us following the recent High Park Forest Fire, which came within nine miles of Sunrise Ranch.
At the conclusion of Dr. Estés’ presentation, she quoted from Corinthians 13:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not [love], I [have] become as sounding brass, or a [clanging] cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not [love], I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not [love], it [profits] me nothing.
She read these words and embellished them with her own experience and authority, inviting us to feel the power of love through her living and her stories. This brought to remembrance words written in the last chapter of Seven Steps to the Temple of Light, by Lloyd Arthur Meeker, who founded Emissaries of Divine Light. Here are some of those words:
The Secret of the All is the Secret of Love, and only he who Loves is able to understand Love…. To the Blessed One who Loves in Selfless Love these words will reveal the All. The Way of Love is Love. To know Love the Blessed One begins to practice Love…. The Way of Joy is Love. The Way of Peace is Love. The Way of perfect Health is in Love. The Way of release from fear and worry is Love. The Way of Freedom is Love.
Love is the answer. And if we are love, we are the answer. The only way you are going to know how to find the answer is to love! It is an answer that is so simple that our minds sometimes fail to see it. It may seem as though love is some kind of condition, or some kind of act that is limited to being nice, being sweet, being kind, being forgiving. All those things are included in the experience of love. But to actually love, a person has to be themselves.
To be yourself means you have to own that you are a self, made of love, residing in this body of yours, on the earth. Love is not just some great idea or a strong emotion. It is not just a spirit that is in the invisible realms that you visit. It is not a place to go. It is a gift to give and receive. It is a thrill allowing all that you are as a being of love to penetrate all that you are as a being of flesh. Love is the power of the universe that is already animating you physically. Our hearts and minds are also designed to be under love’s control.
We sometimes say that heaven and earth are one. For that to be experienced, it is essential that heaven be brought through the capacities of people who know they are love. Love is courageous; love is strong. Love is no respecter of persons. That implies that the human experience outside of love is not respectable. It is not honorable. So let’s let that experience go, and embrace love, express love. Love coming forth through the human experience brings magic, brings beauty, brings new life and peace.
Love is the answer for everything. We are here to bring that answer.