The Opposite of Love

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

- Saint John

We teach that hate is the opposite of love, but I’ve been thinking that it is actually fear that is the opposite.

As I was writing about the things I want to transcend, I realized that most of the things that we want to overcome can be reduced down to a fear. Let’s say, for example, that I want to overcome a concern about what others think of me. That’s reasonable. But where does that concern come from in the first place? Fear, right? Fear that if someone thinks something negative then I’ll be shunned, rejected, left. So isn’t it really from the fear that I would have to be liberated first?

Fear, though, gets forgotten as our attention and our “treatments” gets directed to what are really just the manifestations of the fear. We end up being held back from knowing the fullness of our Selves and the beauty of our dreams because the underlying fear isn’t addressed. Imagine if that fear was gone. What if the prospect of rejection, neglect, and abandonment just wasn’t scary in the first place? What if you weren’t scared of loss, of death, of pain? Sounds pretty liberating.

In my experience, the first step to getting free from fear is recognizing that it’s there. When you think you are upset by something, try being still and asking our mind and your body what they are really scared of. Accept the answer you get without judgement and with great compassion. Connect with your belief in a higher power that is interested only in your greatest good. Then you are ready to begin to let that fear go.

Some fears are easy to change simply by CHOOSING to believe in something different. For example, if I declare that I believe in all things working together for good, it is much easier for me to release the fear of failure, because even “failures” must be part of the good that is unfolding. They lose their power.

Other fears of course aren’t so easy to let go of. The process might be longer, but it is the same in principle. No matter what your belief system is, if you sit with compassion and listen to the pain that resides in you, asking it what it needs and offering YOUR love to it, I believe that it must dissipate. Because love does cast out fear.

Media credit: Leah Piken Kolidas

Besides your own liberation and accessibility to your dreams, there is another benefit to realizing that fear is the opposite of love: you begin to have more compassion for others.

I have someone in my life who must have been sent to teach me about loving others! I sometimes find this person to be condescending or dismissive toward me which then triggers sensitivities in me and make me feel hostile toward her. It’s a terrible, but common cycle. This morning, as I was thinking about my experiences with her, these realizations about fear  entered my mind at the same time and I realized that the two are related. I realized that just as I have fears that lead me to operate in less than love, so too does everyone.

As I reconceptualize her condescension as a product of fear–hers and mine–I can feel compassion for the two of us. We become reduced to our essences…two souls traveling in this journey on Earth together and navigating our experiences with our own level of consciousness at this point in time and space. Separateness becomes comradery. We’re in this together! Why be cells that are battling against each other when we can come together and form something new??

Of course she may not have the same realization, but suddenly that doesn’t matter. I recognize and express gratitude for our connection and I embrace her in a protective, prayerful energy that genuinely desires her highest good. It feels good to be free. And to let her be free as well.

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I have been receiving a lot of wonderful, simple insights during my times of prayer and meditation. I post these most frequently on our Facebook page so don’t forget to visit us there. You are all such joy to me. May you be free from fear today!

Rise & Whine Becomes Rise & Shine

“The alarm in the morning? Well, I have an old tape of Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a perfectly transcendent version in Shubert’s seventh symphony. And I’ve rigged it up so that at exactly 7:30 every morning it falls from the ceiling onto my face.”
― Stephen Fry

I asked a friend who is searching for a passion-producing career the obvious question, “Well what do you love doing?” One of the first things on his list was: Sleeping.

Fair enough.

I love sleeping too! I wish I could get 9 hours of sleep a night while also being able to be a night owl since I’m so productive in the evenings and be able to rise early to enjoy the dawning of a new day without the pressure to rush into it. Alas, that hasn’t worked out for me. I inevitable and invariably snooze and burrow under the covers until the very last minute possible.

So, dear readers, this new month brings me to a new intention on my Here I Am journey. I don’t believe in the myth of the early bird, but I do know that I will be closer to my best me if I begin my day with some calm, centering activities instead of rushing off to work. And don’t forget, approaching your best you means the betterment of your life, of the lives of those in your sphere, and of the world at large. That is not hyperbole! It is true! After this past month of amazing spiritual growth and elevation which continues and will remain, I am eager to bring healing and balance to every part of my life where malaise or imbalance exist. I want to get in there and get it worked out!  So for this month I’m letting “rise and whine” become “rise and shine!”

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Getting out of bed earlier than I have to…this is a monumental feat of will and focus!! That is also not hyperbole! Okay, maybe a little. It is HARD for me though. Like my friend, I LOVE sleep. But let’s not be naive…it isn’t just that I love sleep. There are other reasons I have a hard time getting up. Most of them related to stress, anxiety, and worry that I allow to live in me. It takes me a while to fall asleep because of thinking about the next day. I have very vivid and VERY stressful dreams that leave me feeling like I’ve been working overtime by the time I wake up. Then I arise and almost instantly feel stressed about something awaiting me in my day. That all sounds awful doesn’t it?! It’s hard for me to even believe that is me when I see it written.

The good news is that for the last month, I have politely escorted stress and worry out of my mind and soul one room at a time. It feels amazing to fall asleep soundly and to wake up with more joy and excitement for the day than I am used to. I still have very stressful dreams and I’m not sure what to do about that yet, but two out of three isn’t bad!

Despite these great changes, I STILL have a hard time opening my eyes when that alarm goes off. I still feel like I need a nap after all those frenetic dreams. So, knowing how hard this month would be, I decided that I better make a calendar for myself to help me along. Remember, there is no guilt in Here I Am…just curiosity, compassion, attention, and intention. This is NOT a calendar for gold stars; it IS a “calendar of perspective” to help me see and grasp how few days really make up a month, how far I’ve come, and that the world won’t end if one day passes without a perfect performance. The next day and its fresh start will dawn.

I won’t lie. The first two days of the month I slept right through that snooze button and right through my intention to get up early to have Me time. But yesterday came, April the 3rd, and TA-DA! I was up. I was meditating. I was stretching out. I was sipping a cup of coffee. It felt marvelous. (Interestingly, the night before I did an energy clearing meditation with mudras which is supposed to help you sleep.) Now I’m looking forward to discovering what lies ahead for me in these morning hours. I feel like I’ve discovered a whole new part of the day that I had forgotten even existed. Good morning, sunshine!

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I don’t know if any of you are still doing your Here I Am intentions, but if you are then I connect with you now…from my heart to yours…and send you positivity and energy to propel you onward.

Connect with us on Facebook to get more food for thought on connection and personal growth. See you there!

You Versus a Cow

Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and ‘animals’ is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them — without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.

- Carl Sagan

I’m looking forward to a new little movie that will be launching soon. It is called Speciesism: The Movie and it is intended to make us consider our relationship with animals and the privileged stance we unquestionably assume among the animal kingdom…especially in relation to food.  Here is the trailer:

I find speciesism to be a very fascinating and challenging philosophy. Why do we value humans above animals? What makes us superior, if anything? How far should “animal rights” go? What is a “sentient being?” These kinds of questions are complex and deserve an open mind. You can look at speciesism from all kinds of angles. And people have. My understanding is that the best author to read who argues for NONspecieism is Joan Dunayer.

The movie should be good food for thought! Vegan food of course.

Finding Grace of the World

My family recently held a service to remember and celebrate a loved on who had passed. Although I couldn’t attend, I found out that this poem was read that day. I wanted to share it with our wordpress community as a reminder to stop, to breathe, to give thanks, and to find grace and peace in the world around you.

~~~S Wave~~~

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THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

 

Quote from August Harper’s

Regarding the questionable worth of a college degree….

 

Never has the nation’s system for choosing its leaders seemed more worthless. Our ruling class steers us into disaster after disaster, cheering for ruinous wars, getting bamboozled by Enron and Madoff, missing equity bubbles and real estate bubbles and commodity bubbles. But accountability, it seems is something that applies only to the people at the bottom, the ones who took out the bad mortgages or lied on their resume.

 

Thomas Frank

In Harper’s Magazine, August 2012

One foot, two foot…..

Dear everyone,

I would love to share the ongoing collection of travel shots that we’ve  collected. No, they’re not mountains and castles…they’re just our feet. But we love them! Here they are:

Afoot and Lighthearted.

Enjoy your travels!!

~~~S Wave~~~

2012 - The Awakening (Part 7)

Reblogged from The Sacred Art of Language:

Greetings friends! It has been some time since Part 6, but there has been a strange breeze blowing lately, and I thought it about time to revisit this topic… If you are new to my blog, or would like to re-read the older posts, follow the link below or click the ‘2012’ category in the sidebar.

The condition of modern man – at least the vast majority of mankind – is one of alienation.

Read more… 792 more words

Here is something I read today that I wanted to share. I continue to encounter signals like this that encourage me to remain curious and studious about the question of consciousness and interconnectedness. The author of this blog writes with such love and wisdom. When you read this, I hope you feel a surge in your spirit, an ache for freedom and knowledge, and a belief in the Greater Good as I did.

Elephants and a Watchtower Moment

I have all these posts planned in my head and drafted here on wordpress, but sometimes you need to just click on that “New Post” button and let the words flow in the moment because something has just resonated in your heart and reminded you that you are on the right path–doing what you need to do and learning what you need to learn…

photo by ~~~S Wave~~~

To set the scene: I have been dealing with some life anxiety. Work, relationships, big decisions, little decisions, health…you know how sometimes it all culminates and seems as though you’ve got too much in your brain and not enough synapses to handle it all? Well that has definitely been happening. But this evening I was feeling better and had planned to attend a massive gathering at the Los Angeles Staples Center to protest the Ringling Brothers Circus which has just arrived. It is an annual event (hopefully an unnecessary one next year!) and even though I only had an hour to participate after work, being there reminded me sweetly of my first time going two years ago. It had been my FIRST protest. So each July since then when I attend, it is a time for me to reflect on the progress I have made toward being my most authentic self—-being a person who speaks up for what she believes in and is learning to face some pretty daunting fears.

I came home, spent some time in prayer, ate dinner, and continued reading Laszlo’s Science and the Akashic Field (which you may remember from my summer reading list!) This book is opening my mind up to new ways of understanding interconnectedness…beyond a sentimental ideal or a farfetched fable. More to come on this book in a future post. I’m chomping at the bit!! For now, I will say that this book is scientifically fortifying my belief that there IS something connecting us all with each other beyond time and space. I had just finished reading the section titled The Puzzles of Coherence in Consciousness where the author introduces concepts of transpersonal connection (think twins who feel each others’ pains), telesomatic effects (minds affecting bodies), spiritual healing and intercessory prayer.

As I closed the book for the night, little did I know that I would shortly receive what I will call a “watchtower” moment. These are those moments when you are reminded that you are entirely known right where you are, that the path under your feet is not so much of a mystery as you might sometimes think, and that there will always be something to guide you when that is what you need.  A fellow protestor posted an article on Facebook. It made sense that she would post a story about elephants, but what I hadn’t expected was the message of interconnectedness—-demonstrated in an almost otherwise inexplicable witnessed event—-between our two species. A man who was called The Elephant Whisperer, died in March. During his life, he rescued hundreds of elephants that had been deemed too aggressive for rehabilitation. By connecting with them through hours of talking to them and communing with them in a spirit of patience, compassion and humility, they came to trust him. When he died, his family recounts that dozens of these elephants began marching through his preserve toward his house. One person said it was like a funeral procession. How could they have known he had died?

Click here to read the article: Elephants Mourn

“If there ever were a time, when we can truly sense the wondrous ‘interconnectedness of all beings,’ it is when we reflect on the elephants of Thula Thula. A man’s heart’s stops, and hundreds of elephants’ hearts are grieving. This man’s oh-so-abundantly loving heart offered healing to these elephants, and now, they came to pay loving homage to their friend.”

For me, it was a moving and confounding example of true interconnection, yes. But it was also a fusion of the most wonderful and inspiring parts of my little, human day; it was a message of, “I know where you are in your life…even down to this very evening. Keep going. I am with you.” I hope it will mean something equally benevolent and sustaining to you as well.

In love,

~~~S Wave~~~

Reader Appreciation

I’ve been gone for tooooo long! A lot has happened in the last month but I’m back on this wonderful blog and ready to make some changes (which will hopefully be improvements) and to reconnect with some of my fellow bloggers whose writings I have missed a great deal!

First of all, I want to send a big virtual THANK YOU to http://thesecretkeeper.net/who recently nominated ~~~Life As a Wave~~~ for a Reader Appreciation Award on wordpress….

This was a humbling surprise! Thesecretkeeper is a fellow blogger who demonstrates great bravery , grace and openness as she writes about her personal journey. As I mentioned, I’ve been gone from my blog for a while because a string of events have happened in the last few weeks which have required my full attention. One of these was having my computer stolen. Had I backed up, you ask? “No,” I reply sheepishly. It is surprising how jolting a loss it was. But so be it, life goes on with great blessing and beauty. Then, I receive this message of being nominated by a friend…it was a jewel of love in the middle of a pile of coal.   Thank you for lifting my spirits and delivering a reminder of why we keep on keeping on, secretkeeper!!

I look forward to being back in the swing of things and sharing some new posts soon. Until then!……………

 

 

~~~M Wave~~~, our newest author!

I want to introduce myself. I will be celebrating my 90^th birthday in January, 2012 and I find it exciting to share some of the things that were/are of interest and importance to me. As you might surmise, many interests are intertwined with memories as well.

I have never felt the need to make a huge splash in the world, and I like the concept of being a wave interacting with all the other waves making up the ocean of life. However, there is a great need now for actions that may result in such splashes in order to accomplish the changes greatly needed in various aspects of today’s world.

I was born on a working farm in central Illinois and left the farm after my marriage to my college sweetheart for us both to begin our careers in teaching, then on to having children. My husband became a principal for children, kindergarten through 8^th grade; In a different school, I taught 7^th, 8^th and 9^th graders the subject of mathematics. Both my husband and I felt our home and our own children must be our first consideration, but were fortunate to achieve our goals in our careers. Our marriage outlasted our teaching days and our days of rearing children and we celebrated our 68^th year of marriage before his death.

It is interesting that I now find myself back in the city nearest the farmland of my birth. The memories of my childhood on the farm and the relationship with all the people and the animals of my youth are back so strongly. My husband also grew up on a farm and has written a few articles about his farm life which I shall probably use in my writings as well. His love for children and animals was so evident. After his retirement, Bob volunteered to help second graders improve their reading skills; read stories weekly to some pre-schoolers and, after not having the chance to do much of the teaching in his school as principal, did substitute teaching in the town of our retirement. He was in his early 60′s agewise, quite ancient to a small child, and during one of his substitute teaching assignments in the second grade, we learned a phrase that we used often to handle particularly rough moments in our lives. Bob was holding only one sheet of paper as he was speaking and there was a bit of a tremor. A little girl, with her childhood concern, asked “Mr. Frame, why is your hand shaking?” Before Bob could reply, a little boy popped up with “Wal, he’s a gettin’ old!” Although we often chuckled over that comment, it was straight to the point and of such value that, when we happened to forget something important, we just quoted “Wal, I’m a gettin’ old!” A good sense if humor is so vitally important to help anyone slow the aging process whatever his present age.

The aging process has become one of my newer interests and it is actually somewhat fascinating. The greatest help in coping with the process is, as I inferred above, maintaining a good sense of humor, and especially the ability to laugh at yourself. The aging process gives innumerable occasions for such times. Perhaps I shall review a few of them in later writings.