Love, love changes everything
— from "Aspects of Love"Let there be peace on Earth
And let it begin with me
There are many potential responses to all that is unfolding in the Middle East right now. Among them are grief, anger, compassion, blame, anguish, prayerfulness, vengefulness, confusion, hatred, hope, tribalism, despair, impotence, sympathy and fear.
I've experienced most, perhaps all those responses in one moment or another over the past two weeks. No doubt, you have too.
We would not be human if we did not respond — and react — from an emotional place.
Yet even in the midst of our natural expressions of humanity, we are called to do more, to be more.
That "more" is tougher than any emotional response, for it calls upon us to evolve beyond the triggers of our humanity and act from a place of divinity.
The fact is, all the social/political action in the world — in the universe — will not resolve Middle East wars, end African famines, cure AIDS or halt tyranny.
That's not to say it doesn't matter who you vote for, what you protest, where you lobby, how you direct your volunteer/charitable efforts or how often you pray or meditate on these situations.
Of course it does. All these can mitigate, alleviate and ameliorate.
What they will never do is terminate, not with any degree of permanence.
They can't any more than an aspirin can cure a brain tumor.
The same day that I received my e-mail from Turkey, I received a second e-mail, this one describing how a Hawaiian therapist successfully helped cure the criminally insane — not through traditional therapy but by working on himself.
He would sit with a patient's chart and his own beingness and heal that part of himself that had created the patient's disorder.
His success rate astounded the medical establishment. It shouldn't surprise us.
From a metaphysical perspective, we know we create our own reality. Whether or not we're always pleased with the results, we are the masterful God-creators of all we experience.
Yet that reality is not limited to our bodies and immediate lives.
In effect, there is nothing within or outside of ourselves that we have not created — through our choices, actions and beliefs. That most of these are unconscious does not minimize their power.
It's always interesting to listen to otherwise deeply spiritual people when they condemn this political leader or that country for actions or attitudes with which they disagree.
What they (and I, sometimes) fail to remember is that it is our choices, actions and beliefs that have placed those leaders and countries in our reality.
If I don't like who my president is, what my prime minister stands for, what my elected representative does or how my mayor acts, I can and should cast my vote against them.
But unless I see where they live within me and shift those inner roles, they or others like them will be elected and reelected, over and over again, repeating and reinforcing all those policies I dislike.
If there is intolerance, hatred and bigotry in my world, there remains some degree of intolerance, hatred and bigotry within me.
If I see lack in the world, then somewhere within my beingness, I still consider "not enough" to be a reality.
If there is war in the Middle East — if people are hating each other, killing each other, refusing to understand each other — than parts of me are doing the same thing...if not to others, then to other parts of myself.
It's easy to blame, to sign petitions, to march in protest. It's easy because these externally directed actions ignore our deeper responsibility for all that we desire to change.
It's always easier to look outside of ourselves for causes and solutions.
Nations, along with ethnic, racial and religious communities, have done it throughout recorded history, finding scapegoats to victimize, tyrannize, ghettoize and, ultimately, massacre.
As individuals, we're no less complicit.
How much simpler to attack than take responsibility. How much easier to destroy than look within.
How much less threatening to try to change someone else than heal ourselves.
As long as we focus outward, we refuse to take responsibility for our creation. And if we refuse to take responsibility, we have no chance to heal and transform whatever within us is manifesting in the so-called outer realms.
Taking responsibility is not about guilt or shame. It's not about beating yourself up or victimizing yourself.
It's not even about trying to figure out the "lesson" for you in whatever is occurring either directly in your life or seemingly indirectly in the world.
Working out the lesson is an old paradigm, as is trying to figure out just about anything in these times.
In most instances, the reason no longer matters. In most instances, we have moved beyond that mind-centered "need to know."
In most instances, all that is required for all healing is love, respect and reassurance. Self-love, self-respect and an assurance to those frightened parts of self that they are safe.
There are those who will find this prescription too simplistically New Age.
To them I say that no amount of weapons, wars and walls will ultimately protect you if those you fear continue to fear you.
Where there is no self-respect, there cannot be respect for another.
When you respect yourself, all will respect you.
When you feel safe from a place of self-love, all will respect your security and none will attack you.
And as you heal yourself by loving yourself more deeply, respecting yourself more fully and recognizing that that's where your true safety lies, the world around you will begin to shift.
It will begin to shift because you will no longer need all those mirrors of your fear and self-loathing to remind you of where you need healing.
Like magic, they will vanish from your reality.
They will vanish, too, because your transformation will model similar healings for others, altering mass consciousness and all that it creates.
Truly, as you heal yourself, you heal the world.
Where to start?
• stop blaming and attacking others
• start treating yourself more lovingly, more respectfully
• start forgiving yourself for all your perceived deficiencies and imperfections
• start reassuring all parts of yourself that they are loved and safe
• start making choices that anchor these new/renewed ways of being
You'll find your own way in this, but one thing that works for me is to listen and pay attention to the frightened parts of myself and to keep repeating these words:
