November 24, 2014 04:01:37
Posted By Opening the Heart
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At this time of Thanksgiving I am grateful for the many opportunities life gives us all to learn more deeply about the many faces of love. Life presents us constantly with situations which are crucibles where the opportunity to become as we say in the Opening the Heart Workshop the "quintessential wild lover" - one who learns deep love over time - can be learned and honed. Over the course of my lifetime I have learned that love is not simply a feeling one has towards one's beloveds, but also an action, or series of actions. Specifically:
Courage - the opportunity life gives to learn to love by "taking heart" and doing what is needed even when we are afraid. Sacrifice - the possibility of learning to love by going beyond the self and doing what is required for the good of others even when so doing means there is less for us. Persistence - learning love by finding endurance we never knew we had as we make conscious choices to keep moving forward and not give up on our beloveds even when doing so would be the path of least resistance. And finally Vision - an opportunity to learn to love by imagining and aligning actions with the most loving outcome in a particular situation even if current reality appears on the surface to suggest that a loving outcome is not possible. The gratitude for our many blessings that we open to at this time of Thanksgiving is a first cousin of it's deeper companion, which is love. Perhaps the deepest blessings we enjoy are not the many things that are right in our lives, but the many opportunities that we all have to learn how to love more deeply through every challenge that we face. The Opening the Heart Workshop offers a profound weekend experience where one can learn and practice some of the intricacies of loving "the not beautiful" - the many places where life has inevitably wounded us as we have gone along. Rather than running from difficulties and challenges it offers the perspective of embracing life and it's many experiences, both good and bad, with an open heart, and gives strength to practice applying the many faces of love that are needed on a daily basis by each of us when we return back home. With love and gratitude, Linda
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