love

Make Life Simple

Heart with "suffering is a call to love'

Humans have a funny way of complicating things. Even when we say we’re trying to make life simple, when certain things come too easily or appear overly simple, we tend to discount or ignore them, sensing they are unearned. We want the struggle, the anguish, and the complexity. We want our intricate stories and unique entanglements confirmed by our friends, astrologers, and youtube gurus.

Thankfully, in my own life, the more time that passes, the more simple things become. So at the risk of annoying those who like the struggle, the anguish, and the complexity, I’m about to answer some of life’s burning questions…sure to douse the theatrics and complications. But if you find this all too unsatisfying, trite, or banally oversimplified, feel free to look for better answers. I’ll meet you back here when you’re ready.

What’s my purpose?

To love.

Why is this [misfortune/test] happening to me?

So you learn to love.

Why am I so miserable?

You haven’t learned to love.

Why do I keep attracting the wrong man/woman?

You don’t understand love.

Why am I here?

To love.

Why does this [thing] keep happening to me?

So you learn to love.

Who am I?

You are love.

How can I find happiness?

Love!

Why can’t I find happiness?

Because you keep rejecting and/or denying your nature…love.

And I guess it is now fairly safe to assume that the mind goes directly to the next obvious questions: “How do I do that? How do I learn to love? How do I accept my nature?”

And that, dear reader, is for one thing, a much better set of questions and also the point at which life will really start to change. But don’t expect any easy answers here. Follow your heart!

Peace, Joy, Love

For a long time, the question, “What do you want?” would fill me with angst. I never knew what to answer. I always had a sense that if I did, I would be forever limiting myself and excluding something important. In a way, that was true because my perspective itself was limited to things I wanted to be, achieve, do or have.

Sunflower.StuartDavies — Photo by Stuart Davies Used with Permission

Now I realize it never was meant to be a trick question. I just needed a broader perspective.

I’ve been asking myself the “what do you want” question a lot lately. What do I really want? And the answer is so simple, it’s astonishing. I want three things. With these three things, I’m assured a happy life. What are they?

Peace

I want to be peaceful. What does that mean? What does peace look like? Firstly, it requires acceptance of what is. I can’t be fighting against reality and wanting things to be other than how they are. I have to learn to be with what is, no matter what. It doesn’t mean I can’t take action to change something, but I have to let go of expectations and outcomes. Secondly, it means I have to cultivate peacefulness inside myself. I cannot afford to harbor ill-will toward another. If I do, I will lose the thing I most want out of life. I have to be willing to choose peace over being right or justified. I have to choose peace over thoughts that would instead bring me disharmony.

Joy

I want joy in my life. To be joyful, I have to appreciate life. Luckily, there’s so much to appreciate: color, fresh air, sunlight, flowers, trees, clouds, rain, animals, art… I also have to allow myself to create and be spontaneous. There’s no room for inhibition in joy. Joy is a natural spring that must be allowed to bubble up and express itself. There’s no room for holding back in fear. Joy is exhuberance. It’s playfulness. It’s willingness. Joy opens itself up to life and says, “Yes!” Joy if full of gratitude and generosity. Joy tries new things and isn’t afraid of being a little silly.

I want to live a loving life. I want to be more loving toward not only others but myself. What does that mean? It means I have to be willing to feel all of my feelings. It means I have to respect others for who they are. It means I have to exercise forgiveness on a daily basis. To be move loving, I have to remove all the barriers I’ve built up to love. It means I have to reexamine my beliefs about love. It means I have to be vulnerable and gentle when I want to protect and defend. Love is compassionate and open. There is room for everyone and everything. Love even has room for fear, but love has the wisdom to know that fear has no real power.

This is all I want out of life. With these three things, I have everything. So, it doesn’t matter how they arrive or what they look like. Whatever manifests, and regardless of what doesn’t, I’d have it all.

Day 22: Realign

An ongoing personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love reflecting on the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network .

Today’s pairing is:

Divine Guidance brings you closer to truth, love, healing and your life purpose. It lifts you up and gives you peace or enthusiasm about yourself and the truth, love, healing or life purpose you are working toward.
Ego tries to block you from your truth, love, healing and life purpose. It may try to disguise these blocks as “necessary” or “logical” even though they appear out of the blue and have a fear based feeling to them. Ego drains you, discredits you and makes you feel like “what’s the use?” The closer you get to your goal, the more ego will object!

This is only one pairing, but several things seem to be mashed together. What stands out? For me, it’s the last line: the closer you get to your goal, the more ego will object. I’ve found that to be very true.

It’s quite ironic. My ego is often more invested in my failure than in my success. You think it would be the other way around. You think ego would want to puff itself all up with us getting what we wanted. Instead, it always keeps the goal out of reach. Is it because it fears the end of its usefulness should the goal be met? And why does it try to prevent change? Wouldn’t it feel more useful if it were having to help a person navigate novel experiences and challenges? Who needs a mind when one lives by rote? Yet, ego seems to prefer the familiar…or at least making things so complicated it gets to work overtime to never, ever reach a solution. It’s quite ridiculous and a sign of just how demented the ancient program is. This alone makes me want to cry out, “What’s the use?”

In fact, what’s the use of catering to the ego’s fearful, limiting perspectives? If the damn thing is going to block us from love, truth and purpose, why give it any airtime whatsoever? Why not devote every ounce of energy into freeing ourselves from its insidious tricks and plots? Since I started working with these ideas 22 days ago, egos ways are certainly becoming more and more obvious and transparent.

So I question every feeling of fear. I question everything that feels impossible. I question every voice that says, “never” or “can’t.” I question the completely rational. I realign with all that brings peace, enthusiasm, and excitement. I realign with my gifts and everything I love. I realign with joy. The closer I get to the goal, the more important it becomes to sing louder to drown out the useless noise!