“Love is the Lens”*
Why does it feel hard to write today?
Oh, and yesterday, too?
Wait, let me think.
Yep,
Maybe
Even
The day before that.
I don’t want to be “too down”.
Too bleak.
Nor do I want to be
Frivolous,
Ridiculously
Detached
From the reality
Of our moment.
Okay! I’m going for it—
Here’s my moment:
~~~
How do I feel
My moral outrage
About the injustices
That plague our planet
WHILE…
Still seeing the softness
Of the morning light,
Creeping over the mountain,
Blossoming into yet another
Delicious day?
~~~
How do I continue
Witnessing the great unraveling
Of institutions around us,
WHILE…
Waking into Niki’s
Furry little dog body
Cuddling into me?
~~~
How do I stay abreast
Of the national changes
Which I need to do,
WHILE…
Delighting in the
Bluest of blue
Winter skies,
Alive
With
Sunshine?
~~
How?
I practice.
I just practice.
Coming back to kindness.
Coming back to kindness.
Coming back
To
Kindness.
~~~
Here’s Swami Kripalu, that brilliant saint of a fella (literally and figuratively):
“Love is the lens we return to again and again
to true our alignment when we wobble
in our pursuits toward right action.”
Let’s talk about love.
I don’t know.
Love is feeling a tad
Above my pay grade
These days.
I’m going for kindness.
Can I just not be an asshole
When I drive?
Can I not rush around
The grocery store,
On some wild
Hunting and gathering
Survival
Mission?
Kind.
Can I keep coming back
To kind?
First to myself.
Then to us.
All.
If love is too much of a reach,
Fill in the blank for yourself.
What works for you?
Love?
Kindness?
Compassion?
Empathy?
Swami Kripalu would not mind.
He would want us to make it work,
Each in our own way.
I so appreciate his saying, “…again and again”. That is just the damn truth about practice, again and again and yet another again.
Like Rumi says, “…. Whether you have broken your vow 100 times, come, the door is round and open.” That is just simply PRACTICE.
We practice.
You practice.
I practice.
We do not get it right
And graduate
From
Something.
Damn it.
I love his use of “wobble”.
Wobble = to move unsteadily from side to side.
I don’t know about you…
But I have been feeling
A tad wobbly
These days.
Yes,
A bit wobbly
In my pursuits.
The days themselves
Seem to be
Wobbling.
And “right action”.
To practice aligning our intentions with our actions.
To take right action
And to
Let go
Of the outcome
Of our actions!
Swami’s quote calls us to a place of return,
Of renewal,
A turning point.
A tether.
A landing zone.
To land there.
To breathe in
Our commitment.
And from that commitment,
To take a step forward.
To just practice.
To just practice,
“Truing our alignment.”
Bapuji is giving us a formula for living.
And what a time it is,
What a time
For living.
~~~
Someone recommended this song to me. Intrigued by the title, I checked it out. Realizing it was a country song by Tim McGraw, obviously a big country dude, my very on-the-surface bias roared awake. I was sure the song and the video would be too—too—what? Too American? Is that the word? Too limited? Too church-y? Too exclusive?
I was wrong. Here is the most remarkably inclusive video, Tim McGraw and Humble and Kind:
~~~
Dear Friends,
Centimeter by centimeter,
May we find our way home.
May we practice
Returning to
Radical kindness for ourselves.
May we offer our kindness
To others,
To all,
Here
And
There
And
Everywhere.
We are all just
Pilgrims,
Finding
Our way home.
May all beings benefit from these shared words.
Blessings, all—
Aruni
Invitations—
From My Heart to Yours:
Grief, Loss and Renewal—
Savoring Life’s Lessons
So much is happening, so quickly. Transitions, loss and uncertainty abound. Things that appeared permanent seem to evaporate before our eyes. In this program we will honor our heartbreak, befriend the uncertainty, while creating a plan for reentering our lives, post-program, with “strong back, soft front”.**
Please consider joining this healing workshop. Thanks for sending this link to your people.
February 28-March 2
Kripalu Center
https://kripalu.org/presenters-programs/grief-loss-and-renewal-savoring-lifes-lessons
Scholarships are available.
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*Quote from Swami Kripalu, also known as Bapuji
**Quote from Roshi Joan Halifax, Upaya Zen Center