What weaves the stories of our lives?

"Love, soul, and freedom: these three weave the stories of our lives.  The who, what, when, and where fill in the details and give variation to the plots, but the themes don't get more basic.
     Love is what we all want in life and what we look for first.  It's our passion for living, forming the sea in which our souls swim.  Like the sea, love nurtures and sustains us, but it also offers us somewhere to go with our lives.  Love creates the worlds that our souls explore.  Who and what we love channel our energies, drawing us to this person or that, down one path or another.  Led by our loves, we connect with the worlds around us.  We create places where we belong, where our souls are nourished with meaning and purpose, as well as where we relax, play, and have fun.  Through the intimacy of relationships, we come to know both others and ourselves in love's mirror.  Love brings our souls into focus.
     Soul is our guiding center, our touchstone for what feels right in life and what's ours to do.  Soul is our reason for coming here as well as our reason for staying.  Soul tells us about us--not as others want, expect, or imagine us to be, but as we are in our innermost being.  When we go to the depths of sorrow, confusion, or despair, it's our souls that take us there and see us through.  Or if we experience exhilarating joy, it's our souls that lift us up with a bigger-than-life knowing: 'So that's what it all means!'  Soul is our core, our essence, the ground of who we are, even if we're not at all sure who this soul of ours is or what he or she has in mind for us.
     Freedom gives our souls and loves air to breathe.  Like the air, freedom is a given, at least as far as our souls are concerned.  It's not granted by people, institutions, or governments, or else it'd be theirs to withhold.  Freedom is air to us, because it gives us the space we need to follow our souls and pursue our loves.  Without freedom, our souls suffocate.  With it, they take off; we create, experiment, fumble, and learn.  Freedom says that anything is possible and that it's our birthright to explore possibilities wherever our souls and loves take us.  Sometimes our souls take us down the path of losing everything--a terminal disease, divorce, bankruptcy, or scandal--to show us how free we are beyond externals.  With 'nothing to lose,' we abandon shoulds and oughts and go for our dreams.
     Love, soul, and freedom are natural companions, together creating the fire in the mind, heart, chest, belly, or wherever that makes us happy to get up in the morning.  United--love, soul, and freedom are the Force incarnate, guiding us and permeating our lives with meaning and purpose, even if their presence isn't evident until hindsight.  Love, soul, and freedom are inseparable, and on the deepest levels of our being, that's how we experience them.  When we're on vacation, for instance, we get a taste of these three living happily together: we surround ourselves with who and what we love, let down our hair, and do as we choose."

~ Denise Breton and Christopher Largent, Love, Soul, & Freedom: Dancing with Rumi on the Mystic Path

There is a Place Where We Are Uncorrupted and Untouched by the World

The world is often a dangerous and unpredictable place.

The laws of nature are not ours to control or even fully understand.  Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes and other violent forces of earth do not intend harm.  They are simply responses to a delicate and often mysterious order of purpose and design that operates beyond our manipulation.

Sometimes we do effect our environment by the pollutants we pour into it, by the ravaging of our forests, by the construction of nuclear or other huge facilities filled with poison toxins, and by our greedy misconception that we own the earth and can do with it whatever we please.

The world is also dangerous because of disease, famine, and war.  War being one of the most destructive and disgraceful acts we humans do to one another.  We have not evolved much since the days of Cain and Abel when jealousy murdered innocence and one man's pride destroyed his own brother.  

The horror and sorrow in Japan.  The brutal mess in the Middle East.  The endless dysfunction here in our political system.  It can all be discouraging and overwhelming.

Happy words won't fix any of this.  Waving a Bible over it all is useless.  Hoping it will just go away is delusional.  Turning our backs and pretending it doesn't exist is cowardly.

What we can do is this:

1.  Try to understand our world and how it works.

2.  Believe in the power of science and respect the laws of nature.

3.  Accept the differences in people, cultures, religions.

4.  Don't expect perfection in anything or anyone.

5.  Embrace the mysteries of life.

6.  Realize questions are just as valuable as answers.

7.  Stop waiting for God or some other force to do what we should be doing for others.

8.  Treat our environment with the care it deserves.

9.  Pay attention to the hurts of others.

10.Take time to listen more to what people are really saying and feeling.

Andrew Cohen, in his book, Enlightenment Is a Secret, has written, "There is a place in all of us that has remained innocent, uncorrupted and untouched by the world.  We have to locate that most delicate place.  It is a very sensitive place; it’s where we feel love—where tenderness and compassion arise, free from self-interest."

It is difficult to go there in times like the ones we are living through.  But it is essential to our survival.  And if we make the effort it will carry us through.

© 2011 Timothy Moody