Self-Love
Is In The Balance
Self-Love
is in the balance! In this heartfelt statement I am recognizing that
Self-Love is at stake if we misjudge the meaning of the dark and light
phases in our lives! I believe that in our humanity we are living expressions
of the Divine. The Divine can create nothing less than Itself, therefore,
we are the very hands, feet, and heart of the Divine in expression.
I see dark and light as simply two different expressions of the Divine;
as in flip sides of the same coin. I can choose to be aware of the Divine
in my life or I can reject the opportunity I am given every moment of
my life. I can choose to live in joy or I can choose to live in Self-hatred!
I can choose to recognize the Divine in me or I can choose to reject
Its presence. My choice doesn’t change the Divine. My choice changes
my relationship to the Divine. My choice also most certainly changes
my life experience. In the spiritual traditions that form the heart
and soul of my life the shared values are expressed as: we have free
will, the Divine is immanent, the world of experience is viewed as a
unified whole. All three of the spiritual traditions that I cherish
celebrate these spiritual Truths. The Earth-Based traditions celebrate
this reality each equinox, recognizing that both night and day are valued
equally as cherished partners in the natural cycles of our very nature.
We need light to grow and we equally need darkness to grow!
In this
sacred spirit of equality I’ve been rereading a classic book, “Learning
To Be White: Money, Race, and God In America” by Reverend Thandeka,
a Unitarian Universalist theologian. I highly recommend this utterly
amazing book to anyone who is seeking to reintegrate balance of any
kind back into their lives in order to facilitate living together in
a spirit of love, joy, peace and respect! I had the great honor of hearing
this brilliant woman speak when she came to Kansas City a few years
ago. I cried and cried in recognition of the damage that the artificial,
social separations do to our ability to relate to ourselves and each
other. These separations we intentionally create in the guise of safety
and superiority are spiritual, physical, social cancers that create
holes in our souls that cry out to be healed! Love for ourselves and
each other will bring us back into a healing balance! Another separation
I would like to speak to is articulated in an article I read recently
adapted from a talk presented by Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen as quoted in
Noetic Sciences Review; Spring 1996; pp. 24-25. In this talk titled
“In Service To Life” Dr. Remen was speaking to the difference
between helping and serving. She said, “Helping is based on inequality;
it is not a relationship between equals.... Helping incurs debt....
Serving, like healing, is mutual. There is no debt... Over time fixing
and helping are draining. Over time we burn out. Service is renewing.
When we serve, our work itself will sustain us... In 40 years of chronic
illness I have been helped by many people and fixed by a great many
others who did not recognize my wholeness. All that fixing and helping
left me wounded in some important and fundamental ways. Only service
heals.” In this same article Mother Teresa’s basic message
was also stated as, “We serve life not because it is broken but
because it is holy.” I truly love the spiritual awareness, strength,
balance, love, wholeness and holiness of the messages by these two brilliant
women. As an educator and mental health professional and simply as a
human being I deeply feel and know the difference between these viewpoints
and attitudes. I feel the difference between separation and wholeness!
I feel and believe we are here on Earth to serve life from an attitude
of wholeness, reverence, and holiness. We’re all equals. We’re
here to serve each other! We’re here to love and respect each other!
We’re here to see and to serve wholeness, not illness! In this
month of September as we acknowledge and honor this wholeness, this
connected circle, this equal value of night and day in our lives we
will reintegrate wholeness and holiness back into our lives. We will
recognize and honor the holistic viewpoint and heal all the damage the
dualistic viewpoints have brought into our lives. We will heal all of
the profound cancers that erode the very spirit of our lives. Do you
realize there are places on our globe where there is such a sense of
united community that no cancer exists at all? There’s also virtually
no incidence of murder! Here in our Western world, cancer is undeniably
one of the major killers. It doesn’t have to be that way! We can
reclaim our sense of togetherness and community, our “common-unity”
as one united family of humanity! Metaphysically, that is, symbolically,
I recognize that cancer of any kind is simply fear! Murder is also simply
an expression of fear. Where there is anger there is fear. Fear is simply
the absence of the awareness of love! In our human existence we must
reteach ourselves that difference of any kind doesn’t always, automatically
mean danger! Unfamiliarity doesn’t always, automatically mean danger!
As we consciously, lovingly reintegrate the functioning of our hearts
and minds as a united, sacred whole we recognize that a different skin
color does not equate with danger! A difference of opinion does not
equate with danger either! As we honor the integrity of our lives we
can reclaim the sanctity and the saneness of our lives. We can calm
down, slow down, take a deep breath, and bring dignity back into our
lives! We can meet and greet ourselves and each other eye to eye and
heart to heart and enjoy and treasure our togetherness on our precious
planet Earth. I find it to be hauntingly sad that all of these expressions
away from balance and respectfulness have an interesting psychological
parallel. Cancer of any kind is Self-hatred gone wild! The cost is far
beyond personal! It is cosmic in scope! Self-hatred and cancer both
exhibit an impassioned disconnect with how to life in relationship with
Self and “other”. Both of these life force energies are literally
eating everything in sight and not recognizing they are killing themselves
in the process. They are blind to their own destructiveness. There is
no balance! Self-governed Intelligence is disconnected. Destructiveness
has gone crazy! I know we can do better than that this very day! Our
radiant Divine Self gives us that ability here and now!
As we celebrate
spiritual balance in our lives I want to celebrate the teachings of
Unity. These teachings speak so eloquently and passionately to the power
of our words and thoughts. If we’re unhappy or impoverished in
any way we have only to look at the words we speak and the thoughts
we think day after day! We create our lives by the words we speak. Change
our thoughts we literally change our world! I want to celebrate this
power and give thanks for it. I’ve experienced it so very many
times in my life. September is our time to bring Intelligence back.
Bring back Self-Love. Bring back our full-hearted connectedness. Resolve
to live from a quiet confidence, an ease and peace that radiates Love
and Joy to ourselves and all others. Be all we are! Be Love! Be Joy!
Be Peace! Be visible! Be Compassion In Action! Be our true radiant,
full-bodied, joy-filled, flexible, balanced Self! Blessings to us all
as we celebrate the loving, energizing, sacred spirit of a cherished
balance in our lives!!! Namaste to you, reflection of Self!!!!!!!!
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