what is good news if it is not a Love that holds everyone, recognizing and honoring itself in all?
shake the dust off your feet from ideologies of smallness – small love, small empathy, small tenderness, small kindness, small compassion, small generosity, small equity, small justice, small peace. abandon smallness.
may we open to the fullness of love, that we may offer the fullness of love to others without bias or exclusion.
i’m resharing a link to my blog post from last year, July 4th 2024. in it i shared a warning about Project 2025 having just read some of it & a lot about it, at that time. at that time, many historians & experts on authoritarianism were raising alarm. despite denials, Project 2025 started being implemented from day one – DOGE, cuts to humanitarian aid, power consolidation to the President, extra judicial measures, attacks on DEI, LGBTQ+, & free speech – a playbook for authoritarianism.
this post isn’t a “told you so”, rather a repost suggestion to still read up on it. all links in blog are still active. all of what is happening isn’t a surprise – though faster than anticipated. please catch up & become aware. may our democracy prevail.
may i, like the luminous moon, reflect the light that is given, the limitless light that burns bright in the darkest night, the light by which we see clearly and know fully all things, the light of love.
when our religion or spiritual practice becomes a weaponization towards others, it is no longer about or a path to vast love, it is about ego, insecurity, and power. in such space, we have forgotten that the only way to truly and fully love (and love God) is to love our neighbor. and who is our neighbor? everyone and everything.
more & more i see clearly just how lazy cruelty is. it lacks integrity, dignity, & connection. it gives off a scent of weakness & fear. it requires nothing, no deep soul or heart work from the oppressor, but lays the entirety of the heavy weighted burden on the oppressed. this is the opposite of love.
“The practice of love can be expressed in one sentence: Do not harm others.” ~ HH The 14th Dalai Lama
many of us are trying to figure out what it means to love in this moment, what it looks like to love. whatever definitions we come up with, certainly we should be able to agree that the cruelty and the harm we are seeing being done to others is not love. and when we support or participate in such cruelty and harm, we are falling short of the love we are called to embody in this life for the benefit of others. may we open our hearts to love, choosing love over and over again for the benefit of all in this moment. may we never side with cruelty and oppression. may we do no harm.
this is one of my go to songs when i need a bit of a boost to my hope, my resilience, & my resolution to keep pushing forth in love. though it is nearly a decade old, i think it is as fresh as ever for all we are facing. i find the people invited to participate in this video so beautiful, courageous, & inspiring without exception. there’s not a category of person shown in this video that isn’t being currently targeted or attacked through rhetoric or policy in soe way by the current US admin. i think about their struggles then, & the many who are struggling now facing this moment. all i can say is you are loved, you are beautiful, you deserve happiness & peace. this is why there is a NO KINGS pro-democracy rally this Saturday, 10/8. we all deserve to thrive & that won’t happen within fascism. keep the faith, friends, together we “won’t stop running.”
it’s the dirt beneath our nails work. the callouses on our feet work. the tired voice, but never too tired to listen work. love is work that we choose over & over again. it’s the narrow path, because it excludes no one. something we find almost impossible to not do. that’s the real sin, isn’t it? that we limit love, that we limit love’s capacity to hold & heal it all. so many prefer the judgement & criticism of self-created myth & manufactured purity over the gritty reality of grace, which is love. manufactured purity myth makes cruelty okay, maybe even righteous & celebrated. but that’s the easy way out, the way of non-work, spiritually lazy, harmful & destructive. how dare any of us limit love & exclude, push away, diminish others. we have no right to be so lazy – especially if we have ever felt love. but maybe the cruelest of us, haven’t felt loved, & our cruelty is our unhealed, unloved pain manifest. so there too, love is the answer. love IS work, the hardest work, the world without end work, work beginning in our own heart first, the learning to love ourselves work, so we are then able to remind others that they too are sacred, worthy, & loved. doing so by loving them.
The Metta Garden 