We are all creations of divine love. Love creates love. The first step in getting to know yourself is recognizing that your true nature is love. Loving-kindness is the expression of that love, its manifestation in deeds and words. Here is a graphic I created. Think of it as a picture of your self:
Divine love is the spark of life. It is also your connection to the rest of the Universe. We are very fortunate to be sentient matter and energy, to at least be a partially self-aware piece of reality.
Love connects and illuminates life. It is also at the heart of peace. This is a symbol that I created to express that sentiment:
Some people think and learn best through words, others through pictures. I have combined pictures and words in this post to try to express what I’ve come to know as true in my life.
These days, we have come to expect unexpected, bad news. Every day seems more improbable and chaotic than the last. I believe that our collective expectations help to drive this experienced reality. I have fallen down this hole myself. It’s akin to an addictive drug for me — to wake up and look for headlines more extreme and negative than the last day’s. Part of the appeal of an addictive drug is that it can help one avoid the responsibility of working to create good in our lives and in the world; instead of living as my true nature of love, instead of working to give and receive only loving-kindness, I can numb myself with vicarious violence, injustice, fire fires… the drug choices seem endless.
What we forget is that we are not passive audience members in this play; we are the playwrights. Here is another graphic I am about to create, as I write these words, that depicts the dichotomy between the illusion of powerlessness and the reality of our power. Ok, I’ve drawn it. It’s called Self-Portrait, and it shows that we create and erase ourselves, even when we are lying down, thinking that we are not in control:
