If you are paying attention to what’s happening in the world, you may not be feeling so in love with what you see. The rapid changes in questionable directions, escalating conflict, horrific violence, and terrorism, are more likely to arouse feelings of unease, anger, hopelessness and grief than affinity, joy, appreciation and gratitude.
Anxiety, uncertainty and disapproval are much more common responses to the state of the world than celebration, contentment or affection. Even if you happen to be among the uncommon crowd of folks who remain somewhat detached, neutral, relatively peaceful amidst the world’s chaos, you may not necessarily feel like rejoicing about your experience of life in a body right now.
But what if you could? And would you even want to? What if you could fall in love with what is, no matter what life presents, no matter what you experience, no matter how the world appears to be? Would you like to be in love with what is? Can you imagine how that would feel, how you would experience a life in Love with What Is?
You may be thinking: actually no, I do not want to be in love with what is, because what is, is awful. Why would I want to be in love with awful? Yeah, no thanks, that’s spiritual bypassing. I want to be real. I don’t want to pretend to love something I really don’t. I don’t want to try to love hatred or cruelty or violence or terror.
Falling in Love with What Is does not mean pretending to love something you don’t. It doesn’t involve trying to feign affinity for something you do not even like in the least. Falling in love with what Is, isn’t about the external circumstances, what appears to be happening in our lives or in the world. We would indeed be disingenuous to try to love all the mad and confusing details of this insane world.
Fortunately, we can Love What Is without agreeing with the unloving choices and actions of others, as well as our own. We can Love what Is without having affinity for what is happening in the world, and without ignoring atrocities and painful, awful experiences, or pretending they aren’t happening to ourselves or others. We can love what Is and be fully present with the most heinous, egregious, ugly, painful, dark, and despicable parts of our human experience.
In fact, I encourage you to consider that Loving what Is, is the only way to be fully present with the entire spectrum of human experience. Loving what Is, is how we access the will, power, creativity, and compassion to not only be with the difficult, overwhelming, and painful experiences and situations in our lives and world, but to respond, act, create solutions, and heal the brokenness that we see in the world.
To Love what Is, is to Love the Eternal. What Is, is the Never-changing, Unlimited, always Whole and Present Reality of Spirit. Spirit Is. Or, you could say: God Is.
When I say to Love what Is, I am not referring to anything that has a beginning and an end. I am not referring to anything that we see and experience with our physical eyes and body. This does not mean that what we see and experience through our physical senses is unimportant or worthy of ignoring or glossing over. It means that what we see and experience with our physical senses will always change, will always involve the spectrum of duality, and will always eventually disappoint us if we are expecting it not to.
But when we fall in Love with what Is, we place our awareness of the creative, loving power and eternal presence of Spirit in the forefront of our mind. We are then able to see the pain, atrocities, difficulties, imbalances, and insanity of the world through the lens of compassion, forgiveness (yes, really) and clarity. We are then able to continue being Love while being with that which lacks Love.
When we are in Love with what Is, we can fully be the Love this world needs. We don’t have to rescue the world or be personally responsible for the hatred or dysfunction we encounter (unless it is our own), but we can remain loving, which means we can remain at Peace, inspired, responsive and creative, able to share kindness, joy, care, healing, support, whatever is needed, because we are giving space for the Source of Love to Be and move in and through us.
It may seem impossible to fall in Love with what Is when your attention is captivated and perhaps even traumatized by the ugliness and pain in the world. But I assure you, it is more than possible, it is the most accessible, simple, powerful, and certain choice you can make: to choose to Love That Which IS.
It is the only way to make sense of the senseless, to understand forgiveness, and to free yourself from the cycle of despair and agony that characterizes the human condition. Not by avoiding it, but by fully being with it and discovering, over and over again, that who you are can not be harmed by these painful, awful experiences. Because who you are is Eternal, Free, unchanging, and forever Whole.
However, it is difficult to experience the reality of your Eternal Self if you have not fallen in Love with what Is. If you are invested in being the body, you will experience being the difficult, painful and impetuous nature of life in a body. But, when you choose to consider who you really are, beyond the temporary experience of having a body, you have an opportunity to embrace what Is.
Give yourself an opportunity to fall in Love with what Is: the Eternal, That Which Is. A little step in this direction goes a long way. Loving what Is gives you the strength, inspiration, courage and power to Be here fully, regardless of the circumstances. It allows you to Have the Loving, abundant, beautiful Grace of Spirit that is yours. And it allows you to share it with the world, so that yourself and others will be comforted, inspired, held in a healing space.
When you fall in Love with what Is, your peace, joy and inspiration grow, and it spreads out into the world, infecting others like little bright invitations to join the joyous dance with Spirit.
When you fall in Love with what Is, you exude the remedy this crazy world needs.
May you fall in Love with what Is, over and over again, and rejoice in the everlasting, joyous grace of Being.
I Got Kin
by Hafiz
Plant
So that your own heart
Will grow.
Love
So God will think,
“Ahhhhhh,
I got kin in that body!
I should start inviting that soul over
For coffee and
Rolls.”
Sing
Because this is a food
Our starving world
Needs.
Laugh
Because that is the purest
Sound.
by Hafiz