On fear and Love!

Ah love

We love it

And God agrees

Love of self,

love of neighbors,

(in that order)

Are the greatest things we can do

Oh, let’s not forget love of God

But love is a tricky thing

We can't love others until we truly love ourselves

Not just pieces of ourselves

The parts that are light

And joyful

And generous

But our whole selves, good and bad

Strong and weak

Spiritual and earthbound

When we aren’t “in love”

We miss love

We don’t see love's expressions

Love can hit us between the eyes

And we won’t notice

Those around us can ooze

attraction, focus, absorption,

 desire, adoration, security,

trust, empathy, caring,

and we won’t see

God can offer communion and joy

And we won’t accept

Because of one great enemy

FEAR

Fear always trips us up on the spiritual path,

and it surfaces most often around the practice of love.

We are afraid to love

We worry that nobody will love us back.

We put performance measures on the love we give

We doubt the strength, the endurance of the love we receive, fearing we are not enough

We fear that we will never be deeply love

We fear that we will never be able to truly love

We fear that we will hurt

We fear that we will be hurt

So we run

Or we hide

This is where love of God, received and given, comes in.

Hafiz in his weird wisdom suggests the following ….

"Sit down with a name of God on your tongue,

Or let your spirit arms reach within and embrace

something sacred there; you might begin to shine.

All that lives in the shadows, all names and forms,

will then run from - or bow to - the king of the jungle, your soul your soul...."

Jesus said it a slightly different way…

“the secret is this, Christ in us”

go inside

and find the sacred within

and find the "created to be you......

go inside and find the love you need

this truly is the antidote for fear

and the secret of love of self

and others