I’ve spent lots of time with people, including myself, who don’t embrace their loveliness. Many of us were taught to love our neighbors as ourselves and what we heard was the first part which got in the way of the second part. I spent so much time trying to love others that there was no energy left to love me. Eventually I came to resent others. It was unconscious which made it even more deadly. What I didn’t know is that there’s an infinite supply of lovingkindness in the world and the more you love and care for your Self, the more you can love others. It took me decades to truly understand this.

When we follow the directives of love, truly become receptive to the cosmic energies of love that permeate the universe, we’re able to do so with others.This lovingness doesn’t create separation, it overcomes the illusion of it and helps us recognize how much we are all apart of the infinite whole. The feelings of fragmentation and disconnection, of fear, alienation, loneliness, and despair are actually caused by the absence of love. This absence dissociates us from the very essence of Life, the ground of our Being.

What connects us to Life is a deep longing, a yearning for union, an overcoming of our feelings of separateness. We long to be one with our essence, with each other and with Life itself. This connection is made when we awaken to our True Nature, our infinite Self that has been part of us since the beginning of time. This creative and ever present impulse of evolving Life is the metanoia, the meta-mind that transcends all separation while also including it. Receptivity to this infinite expansive evolving heart-mind energy of lovingness awakens and illuminates us to know we’re all part of a greater whole.

We need not fear anything. Our deepest joy and serenity is intrinsic to the nature of our Being and is enhanced through growth and change. The meta-mind is naturally radiant and pure. The Sun is not affected by the clouds, it’s always shining. The meta-mind, filled with unconditional love can be likened to the Sun with a variety of clouds moving  beneath it, some light and puffy, others dark and threatening. No matter what, the Sun is not affected by the clouds. It’s independent of them. It keeps on shining. Why can’t we?

Like the Sun, Love is a radiant life giving energy that’s always present and shining. Imagine becoming your own best friend and loving your many selves and those of others. Imagine giving focused attention to the energy of Love unfolding wherever you are. Imagine flowering into your loveliness. Imagine affirming, accepting, appreciating and bowing to everything that crosses your path. Imagine attending to Love’s presence, power, aliveness and embracing the Who that’s Truly You. Imagine sunning, flowering.

• When faced with the dark clouds of difficulty, change your perspective. Climb a tree. Move to a more spacious place externally. Learn from these experiences to find the higher ground, altitude, perspective from within. Close your eyes and picture the unfolding, the flowering, the lightness, the inner sun, the smiling heart. Isn’t it mostly a matter of perspective, a shift of focus to the love that’s in every heart beat, breath and thought? Who’s in control here?
• When you notice resistance within to what’s happening outside you, STOP. Be still, trust the inner sun, open to its warmth and place your disconnected selves in the presence of its radiance. Feel the subtle energy from your heart center. Know it with every breath. Feel Its warmth melting the dark clouds. Gain clarity. Isn’t the True Self always shining in you?
• Re-read the last paragraph of the above text and visualize each of the six scenes. Enter into them and let them enter into you. Embrace them. Feel them. Try them on. Live with them awhile. Get to know them. Become them. Imagine the difference it will make in your life as you master each one. Pick one of them to hold in your heart-mind until it becomes part of you. Then move on. Isn’t this process a lifetime journey of Lovingness for all of us? Lovely . . .