By Shawn McAndrew
Love: It is one of the strongest and most durable emotions that is brought forth in the Process. We rediscover it, reunite with it, and even find it. When we leave on that final Friday, we carry it proudly on our sleeves and in our hearts. Its sound is perched upon our lips.
Love Is Everywhere
The capacity to love is one thing with which we are all born. Throughout our lives, it can sustains us. We strive for it, we seek it, we give it, we take it. Thousands of songs and stories are written about it, and countless times each day it is spoken of and held in our hearts.
Love lifts us up, moves us, colors our world, holds us steady in a storm. Love is where we go in times of darkness and in times of light. It knows no bounds.
Give Some, Get Some
Lately, though, I’ve been a bit distressed about reports of hate-filled speech and actions, about how people are treating each other. These actions and words seemingly are coming from a place of negative love, the principle upon which Bob Hoffman founded the Process. But when I examine my day-to-day interactions and personal encounters, it appears that love is not lost. People still hold doors for the person behind them, smile at each other, encourage each other to have a good day, and offer help. We continue to find ways to exhibit this most basic – yet essential – emotion.
Love is something we give to each other – a simple gesture, a smile, a word of encouragement, an act of kindness, a hug, or a pat on the back. Even if a person has billions of dollars, thousands of friends, and hundreds of things, he or she is no richer than anyone who has love. Everyone has the capacity to offer and accept love.
The Power Of Love
Each day I have the opportunity to examine my own capacity, both to others and to myself. I ask myself, am I speaking about others (and myself) with kindness, compassion, and empathy? Or am I finding fault, tearing down, destroying another’s worth through my words? This is a powerful responsibility we humans hold; our actions speak louder than our words. If we intend to lead our lives from love, we must walk in its footsteps. We must embody and embrace love – to be our spiritual self on the outside, not just the inside.
“We Are All God In Drag”
I recently came across this quote by television writer and producer Chuck Lorre: “…if you thought the world was a hostile, ugly place filled with awful people doing awful things, that is what you would see. … If, however, you were able to sincerely change your mind and see that we are all God in drag, that we are the conscious aspects of a perfect universe, which had to create us so we could bear witness and stand in awe before its loving magnificence, then that is the soul-shaking reality you’d be greeted with each and every moment of each and every day. With a simple decision, we can suffer in the darkness or play in the light. We can be angry, frightened or enslaved, or loving, joyous, and free.”
Some people may think that love breaks them. Truth is, love is the glue that puts us together when we are broken. Let’s choose to play in the light and embody the power of love as we move through these uncertain times.
©2017 Hoffman Institute Foundation