Pure Love Perspectives

I have been trying to follow my own advice and walk the walk over these past few months by making a sustained effort to truly slow down. There is so much hype about the idea but clearly it is easier said than done. The main challenges to successfully slowing down that I have so far identified through my “research” are the following: While anything is possible, anything is not ALWAYS possible and timing is an extremely important factor when contemplating change. Real change takes time because it must be fostered on many different levels under specific conditions, some of which may not be immediately under your control. If you have a young family for example, your responsibilities as a parent might require you to postpone your slow-living ambitions. (You can take advantage of this excellent opportunity to practice prevention however by starting now to strictly manage your portfolio of non-essential responsibilities.) In your effort to slow things down you may at first need to become...

My last blog was an anthem to letting go of expectations and sitting in a place of patience in order to receive ALL of the wonderful things that are in store for you regardless of the source, including information. Here are just a couple of examples of two surprising yet perfect ways in which information that I needed flowed to me since I wrote that a week or so ago. I was shopping at a local bookstore for a specific book to offer as a birthday gift. Since it is a popular title I was able to find it quickly on the shelves. Given my tendency to lose myself in a book store I was very satisfied with the efficiency of my errand thus far. The book was on the bottom shelf so I bent down to grab a copy. As I lifted it fluidly from its place on the low shelf I did a double take as there was somehow a second, and different, book sliding off the shelf at the same time. After a few startled seconds I realized that it had been “abandoned”, placed horizontally on top of the 5 or so copies ...

When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and is attracting me. There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it. -Rumi From this one can also deduce that even Rumi had moments of confusion and distress. 😅 We are slowly coming around to the idea that locally grown food and locally produced goods are the best for the local population. What if, as Rumi’s sweet words seem to suggest, this same concept extends to EVERYTHING? What if whatever you need - and what is actually best for you - is no further away than your gentle reach? What if all you have to do is sit quietly enough (tuning out the noisier distractions that is) to see or hear that what it is you are looking for is right there in front of you? Take information for example. I used to think that it was necessary to imbi...

This question from your sweet darling 14 year old, his eyes and voice pleading for reassurance, is enough to make any parent’s heart explode. You are at once gripped by the intense desire to protect and reassure your child while at the same time your own fears and insecurities about the future arise - not only about theirs but possibly about your own as well. It is very understandable that as a parent you would feel compelled to assuage your child’s fears with an emphatic “Of course you will darling - don’t worry about it! You are one of the smartest kids I know!” This is probably how your parents responded to you when you asked this same question as an adolescent. However emphatically you manage to say it, it is still nothing but an empty platitude and while it may seem to do the trick, such a response will most likely leave your child feeling dismissed and as scared as ever. Since platitudes are perhaps even more harmful to those who inflict them, you will also feel unhappy and c...

As life would have it, shortly after deciding to explore this topic I found myself vacationing in a new city and anxious to pamper myself, booked a mani/pedi. Upon arriving and seating myself in one of the battalion of chairs I had the uneasy feeling that this was not the kind of place where the body is considered to be a hallowed vessel for spirit but more an object to be subjugated, or at the very least, commanded. Survival instincts heightened, I quickly gleaned that when the pedicurist “tapped” my leg it was her signal to either lift my foot up within her reach or to place it back in the foot bath. I would immediately comply with the tap signalling that I return my foot to the bath as this meant that I would no longer be subject to her poking and stabbing with her various instruments the extremely sensitive corner of my big toenail and the subsequent grating of the nail file back AND forth. I allowed myself to relax somewhat gratefully as she proceeded to massage not only my fe...

How many times have you prayed for love and then not been able to receive the answer to your prayers? You might not even be aware of how many times because you probably didn’t even recognize it as an opportunity for love. Because we have VERY limited notions of what love looks like. And incredibly high expectations. And just to clarify right away, I am talking about love the FEELING and NOT the act. Love that makes your heart feel like it is going to burst out of your chest. Love that makes you feel like you are walking on air. Love that gives you so much energy that you feel like you could bench press a thousand pounds. Love that instantly reforms your state of mind from one that makes you feel bad to one that makes you feel good. Love that fills you up so much that it spills out around you causing people to look. Love that is so gripping that you have to remind yourself to breathe. I have been on a lot of vacations lately because during the months leading up to this perio...