I’d like to acknowledge the passing of our good friend Barbara Marx Hubbard. Last Sunday I spoke about being with her. Today, Sunrise Ranch is feeling the loss of her vibrant presence.

We have enjoyed Barbara’s presence day-to-day as a member of this community, and now her physical presence is no longer here. And the global community of friends of Barbara is feeling it too. As we hold a place for her passing and are willing to continue to acknowledge and reveal our genius, we also acknowledge the gifts she gave to us. And it’s totally clear to me she hasn’t left my side.

Earlier today I was with a number of people offering a spiritual blessing to Africa. There is a lot of turmoil there, as well as a lot of love. Several people who have a direct connection with Africa spoke about the gifts and blessings they know as a result of that connection. Samuel and Sarah Adelowo were present. They are originally from Cameroon and lived there until recently. Sarah shared that in moving to Texas she has had the experience of the loss of a community culture. It was her experience in Cameroon that multiple generations lived together. That was the familiar culture. It was nourishing and supportive and individuals saw themselves as all one family. While this was true in her African culture, Sarah noted this is natural for all humanity. But we have lost our sense of being one family. We have forgotten that we are all connected. While we extend a blessing to Africa, we can receive this one in return—the reminder of our connection to each other.

We are connected in the culture of Universal Love. The evolutionary urge of love is moving through all of us right now. The same current of love is animating everything. So what does that evolutionary urge want to have happen? What does love want to have happen? If we are paying attention and answering love’s call, we spread a blessing that extends to everyone because we are all connected.

In the gathering for Africa, Samuel spoke of how he doesn’t think of what he has as his own. He believes that what he has is to be shared with the larger family. We live in a culture of fear and belief in limitation. Immersed in that culture, we believe we must protect ourselves and what we have from others to make sure we have enough. This is a demonstration of the loss of awareness of the culture of love and of our natural connection to each other. The result is that we act out of the fear that we won’t have enough. And we are stingy with giving our gifts.

The evolutionary urge contains our love and our genius. When it is stifled to the point of spiritual constipation, we lose our natural creative joy. Our pathological self-concern decreases our vibrancy, resulting in a brittle, lonely experience.

I would like to invite you into an experience. Think of someone you dearly love. Be with the presence of that Being. Stay with it for a few moments. Now think of someone who dearly loves you. Be with that Being and stay with that feeling for a moment. Notice how things feel different. This simple experience touches the mystery, the magic, the power and the miracle of love. Love is all around us and it never goes away unless we shut the door. Our whole experience changes when we allow the love that we feel for someone to be so present, even when they are out of sight.

The magic of what happens just by invoking that love shows how much we are connected. Our love is one of our great gifts, whether it is for another person, a pet, or for the whole world. In the process we become a chalice filled with the light and the power of an inner sun. The warmth of our love fills us to overflowing. It fills the whole chalice of our Being and its radiance fills the space. It’s a miracle! It is a mystery understood only by the heart. In a space filled with love, we bring the power of gratitude and forgiveness. The presence of grace is known, and grace brings generosity. Full of gratitude and forgiveness, we know how much we have been given and how much we have to give.

The evolutionary urge that Barbara spoke about many times is often ignored. And if you ignore that urge, your genius is left untapped. As you magnify the current of love, and participate in a culture where other people are doing the same, your gifts are easily given and other people’s gifts are easily received. We can always ask the question: “How might the spirit of love be magnified in this situation?” How large is the power of your love in the world? It’s amazing!

For years I have participated in Radiant Circles, where we hold a space and allow situations to come into them, and pour a blessing into them. It might be someone who is needing support in a health situation; it could be a situation that’s happening in the world—so much in the world is in need of our loving radiance. When I am blessing the circumstance in front of me, the entire field is lit up. The circumstance, the person, and the world they’re connected to is lit up. And my whole world that I am connected to is being lit up, because it is the sun that’s moving through me and lighting it all up. It is me. I am the sun. I am the radiant Being I came to be. I came here to be a sun, through living flesh, no longer waiting for the perfect opportunity, the perfect partner, the perfect situation to let myself show its glory. The perfect time is now and it is the only moment.

Individually we have such a spectrum of love to bring. There is a love for your garden, there is a love for your animals, there is a love for your partner and your friends, there is a love for this planet, there is a love for the life that you’ve been given, there is a love for the privileges that have been shared with you. And there is the love for the broken heart in grief. So many different dimensions of how we know love and how we experience a connection that lights up the world. We have such a range of gifts to give, and they are all different flavors of love.

What is patience, if not love? What is kindness, if not love? What is forgiveness, if not love? What is wonder, if not love? If you have felt any of those things, you know love. Many people think, I don’t think I could love anymore. It’s just too painful. What’s most painful is not loving.

There are times when the pain that we experience is because we loved with a concern for certain results. We were doing it because we thought things would go a certain way. We thought the way we were going was a sure path, and all of a sudden we’re treading water. We may not have been paying attention. Or perhaps we were invested in the results we anticipated. In times like that, our radiant expression is what propels us forward, and we learn that our own self-concern doesn’t have to be in control.

There is a way to let love radiate without concern for results. There is a way to let the warmth of your Being, the radiance of your presence, the gravity of your knowing, the intensity of your magic, to be allowed to move without concern for results. I can assure you, the results may be far more magical than they would have been otherwise.

We may have limited the gifts that can be given to us because we think we know better. Perhaps we had an opinion about what should be happening. We couldn’t see the opportunity and couldn’t receive it. We don’t love fully and truly until we let go—let go of opinions and open to the possibility that the love we are bringing and the love that another person is bringing is one thing—the creative, evolutionary urge.

Let us participate in the generosity of love, which is the magic and mystery of creation. Let us remember that love connects us all, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Be open. Be radiant. Feel the evolutionary urge. Bring your gifts. The gift of your love is beautiful and so needed.