Love Archives - Page 2 of 10 -

Patterns

By Simone Lipscomb | February 6, 2016

We find magnificent patterns in nature…sand ripples, turtle shells, leaf structure, rock formations…an endless list. There are the patterns of global wind and ocean currents, weather, movement of stars through the vast, velvet sky as well as river’s pathways and crystalline formations. Amazing, magnificent patterns abound and give us structure, things on which we can depend.

With one of the last iPhone updates, my phone automatically gives me estimated time of travel to various locations based on patterns in my life. It’s a little freaky that my phone can guess my travel based on regular moments. 29 minutes to Fairhope it tells me when I start the car at 7am. Or 25 minutes to home from cycling or walking Buddy in the state park. When it doesn’t predict my destination correctly I taunt it. Ha, you are wrong! That’s not where I’m headed. It’s a bit strange to be so predictable that my phone can usually guess where I’m headed.

Sometimes patterns are wonderful…yoga, cycling, walking the dog, meditation, nourishing meals. All healthy. But what about those other less-than-healthy patterns?

On my way to yoga this morning I was enjoying the beautiful back-country roads and contemplating stuff….you know stuff. I saw how behaviors and choices in our lives become habits or patterns. Chemical grooves are literally worn into our brains like the grooves on vinyl albums. Inner patterns can be beautiful or can be self-destructive.

The vision came of standing in the eye of a cyclone and experiencing the calm at the very center of life. Fears swirl around inviting me to grab hold and collapse into that old way of being. The familiar, the practiced behaviors can entice us so temptingly but the moment we step out of the calm center and grasp the old fear pattern, we are jerked into a chaotic cyclone. This is one example but the possibilities are truly as endless as the patterns we find in nature.

The beginning of true personal power comes with the realization that we have choice. So often we simply choose the familiar reactions, practice the same behaviors and we stay stuck in our lives. The moment we pause and listen before leaping into old, reactive behaviors of action and speech is the moment we begin to see there is no prison except the one we create for ourselves. As surely as we build our inner jail cell, we have the key to exit it at any moment and create a life without in-prisoning behaviors and actions.

While this certainly applies on a personal level, it also applies on a community level or global level. What are the choices we make each day that keeps us stuck or frees us? Imagine a planet where we collectively pause and reflect upon our actions…our reactions. The potential for peace and love grows with every one of us that pauses before reacting, before practicing old behaviors and patterns of speech and being.

I celebrate beautiful patterns in life….those that enhance beauty and peace, love and compassion….those that keep us in the sacred, calm center.

Love Anyway

By Simone Lipscomb | December 10, 2015

An elderly man walking across a busy intersection got caught in traffic as the light changed. I waited to allow him to cross. After I began to move forward the guy behind me laid down on his horn and swerved around me screaming at me. So much for compassion.

Each day I work on cultivating compassion. I say work because of people like the driver who honked and screamed because I waited for a confused, elderly man to get safely across the road. One moment my heart was pouring forth love and concern and the next I was trying to keep from shouting back at the guy screaming at me.

In no way could I make sense of the guy’s reaction to kindness…actually to safety and the law (pedestrians have the right of way). In what world does he live in to leave a confused, old man in between two lanes of traffic whizzing past on a five land highway? So I glanced over as the guy wheeled around me and mouthed: what is your problem?

There’s a mime on FaceBook going around that goes something like this: I meditate daily, I light candles, I do yoga and sometimes I still want to slap people. And that’s okay because I’m still working on myself. And I love the old man who was crossing the street and needed assistance. I love people who are kind and generous and compassionate. And I’m working on loving those that are mean, pushy, uncaring, violent….I really am…but I’m not quite there. And that’s okay.

I’ll continue to light candles, do my meditations, practice yoga and search my heart for places that haven’t opened yet and there will be moments when dark actions in others trigger my anger…and that’s okay, too. I’ll love anyway….beginning with myself.

Love…Fierce, Strong Love

By Simone Lipscomb | November 23, 2015

On Saturday I was stopped at a traffic signal at a major intersection in a small town and several individuals with Bibles and signs reading: Fear God…The Wrath of God Cometh, were standing and screaming at vehicles. It was a bit intense but luckily I was listening to music…a chant invoking Love. I just kept on singing and envisioned Love coming through me and touching every one of the angry people screaming their message. It felt as if my car filled with Light as my heart remained open. I saw Light and Love touching all, no matter what they were doing or who they were. And it went beyond that moment to all humans, animals, places. Love has no boundaries. It knows no strangers. It was so amazing to feel that Love isn’t conditional…what a relief!

To quote I Corinthians 13: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keep no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.”

As I sang and danced in my car, it wasn’t an act of defying those on the corners, screaming their message. I wanted to know what it felt like to keep my heart open without judgement and allow them to coexist peacefully. At one point, at this rather long red light, I glanced over with a smile and one of the young guys was watching me and I knew he felt it for he wasn’t screaming and his face didn’t show anger. He just stood there, open…questioning.

Love is powerful. There is nothing more powerful than Love. Love is fierce. When did we forget this? Why is it so scary?

“Be Fierce….Look trouble in the eye. Let it see your courage and strength. Stand firm in yourself, grounded in love. Feel your bigness, know your truth. Face fear, chase fear. Be fierce.”*

*Quote from my new book, Manatee Mindfulness. It’s a book about mindfulness filled with images of wildlife and available on my website or from me personally. Check it out!

Breathe for the World

By Simone Lipscomb | November 14, 2015

Tears rolled down my face as we sat sounding Om* for the World but especially for Paris. That simple word united our focus, our minds and hearts, as we began our yoga practice. Still feeling raw from news of the attacks, I surrendered to the breath and the opening of the heart that comes with breathing…in……..out……….in……….out.

The week had already been difficult for various reasons. Thursday my thoughts focused on an elder in my extended family, a family to which I once belonged. His birthday was coming around Thanksgiving….how old this year? 95? 96? I wondered how he was and sent him a heart hug. Friday morning an email arrived with the news that he had transitioned to the next stage of his journey and had left this earthly realm.

My heart opened to his family, my former family, and all day I thought of them. It’s difficult to know how to express love and grief in situations such as this. Love doesn’t go away because relationships change.

Then late last night social media began distributing the news of the attacks on Paris. More terrorism, more fear. More opportunities to hate. And more opportunities to love.

Gathering with my yoga community to practice this morning, we joined together and opened our hearts to help generate love and compassion. With each breath, each posture we were guided by our teacher to open more, create more space within ourselves and to give it away to the world. We dedicated our practice to love, the love generated from open hearts, open minds.

As the tears flowed I dedicated my practice to Paris and to Charles Cooke and to his family…breathing love and compassion to all. And even to those whose fear turned to hatred strong enough to commit such violence. Every posture a prayer for peace, a prayer of love.

I no longer felt helpless but rather empowered to help change the fabric we each and all create. We exist in an on-going collective creative dance. The key is to be mindful of exactly what we are creating….monitoring our thoughts, behaviors…our speech.

When my grandfather passed from this world during Hurricane Katrina I envisioned him helping those dying cross over. When Daddy-O passed this week and the Paris attacks happened, I envisioned him helping those whose lives ended so suddenly and violently. Both men were in their 90’s and both had faith based in love. They leave behind a legacy of love.

May each of us cultivate love and compassion with every inhalation and with every exhalation send it out to the world. With our mindfulness, let us breathe for the world.

——-

*While there are many possible origins and explanations for what Om means, I think of it as the sound of the Universe. When we hold this word in song, we allow the sound of the Universe to breathe through us.

Thank you Augusta Kantra for providing the container for a practice of love and compassion.

Moving Beyond Fear

By Simone Lipscomb | August 18, 2015

As is the usual case when cycling, I went into a meditative state and allowed the miles, humidity, heat, green tunnel of the trail and my mind to meld. Thoughts and ideas surfaced and I began to tug on a string of thoughts on fear.

We see fear daily…people carrying guns openly into schools and grocery stores; people destroying the Ocean, land, wildlife and human health to grab more money, more profit at any cost; humans lashing out at others because they look different, practice a different religion, live in a different country, come from a different culture; killing snakes, huge granddaddy alligators, rhinos, lions, whales, dolphins…an endless list.

So how does all of this relate to fear?

Many years ago I read the statement: What is not love is fear (ACIM). This statement has bounced around in my mind and heart for over thirty years and each time I chew on it, it seems more true. Here’s a short list of other ideas on this:

1. “There is no fear where love exists. Rather, perfect love banishes fear, for fear involves punishment and the person who lives in fear has not been perfected in love.” I John 4.18 (ISV)

2. “When you don’t choose love you choose fear. To transcend fear, we must move somewhere else emotionally; we must move into love.” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross & David Kessler

3. “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” John Lennon

4. “Love is the only antidote to fear.” John O’Donohue

5. “Fearlessness is not only possible, it is the ultimate joy. When you touch non-fear, you are free.” Thich Nhat Hanh

6. “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Plato

7. “Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.” Marianne Williamson

8. “Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate it.” Cyril Connolly

I grew up shooting guns in a family with guns and still enjoy shooting my pistols at the range, so please don’t mistake me as a person that is anti-gun; however, I can only draw one conclusion from grown men wanting to open carry semi-automatic rifles into grocery stores and schools–they are afraid. Sadly, much of the fear is created in their own mind. A few weeks ago an image blazed through social media of men wearing their semi-automatic rifles into a grocery stores…really? Is it that scary to purchase ice cream these days? Or veggies? Has the beer aisle been invaded by prohibitionists? Open carrying your big guns in schools? Doesn’t that only generate more fear…especially in the children who are trying to focus on learning? (Sigh). As I pedaled the only conclusion I came to was…they are afraid.

The mega-corporations that trash our planet and all life on it…aren’t they fearful of not having enough? The profit-at-any-cost mentality has at its roots a fear of not having enough money…or power.

Fishermen that call manatees ‘speed-bumps’ and lobby to have them de-listed from the endangered species list are, at the foundation, afraid that they won’t get to the fish quick enough, that somebody else will get more than them, that an animal as gentle and sweet as manatee should, God forbid, have rights to live in their own watery realm safely.

There are some that physically attack others who are different. Think of women that have been abused, gay individuals who have been tortured, black people, Native Americans…what could possibly be at the basis of the horrendous acts of violence? If you pull the thread long enough, fear is at the foundation. Fear of losing control of another you consider ‘property,’ or fear of your own sexuality, or fear that individuals with different colored skin will ‘take-over.’

Every scenario I pondered as I pedaled, came to one basic foundational cause: fear.

So what is the answer? How can we collective move past this to stop the violence born of fear?

As is often the case when pondering a lingering question, I found a random movie on Netflix. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World’s basic storyline is a comet is going to hit the earth and it’s the story of how people deal with an impending global disaster. I noticed three ways people dealt with it: 1) Violence and anarchy; 2) Survivalist mode; 3) Love and peace.

We are living at a time when some humans alive now could see the end of civilization as we know it. There are countless ways this is progressing so there’s no need to go into those. But how we choose to deal with these stressful times is the same as the movie: 1) More violence against the earth and each other; 2) Defensive/survivalist actions; 3) Love and peace.

At the end of the movie the female lead character whispers to the male lead, Steve Carrell, “I thought we would end up saving each other.” He replies, “We did.” The comet hits and everything turns to light.

Isn’t that the answer? Love each other, love life, and we transform into light. We save each other.

Perhaps the only way we will make true, lasting, planetary change is to move beyond fear and find a way for love to blossom. Each of us…individually…can excavate the fears within our own hearts and minds. If we are serious about creating a better world, the change begins within ourselves.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” Rumi.