Love Archives - Page 2 of 11 -

Love and Gratitude

By Simone Lipscomb | March 22, 2016

From Sunday night:I can’t sleep. When I close my eyes I see the large, white truck pulling out into the side of my car and the headlights illuminating my car’s interior, my face and the words rush into my mind, I’m not ready to die yet.

Snuggled safely in bed now tender moments of the evening flash back into my mind. Sweet hugs, kisses on my forehead and cheek, a bear hug that lifted me off the ground, smiles, friends sharing kind words, music. And earlier in the day…lunch with my mom and brother.

After the truck nearly took me out, my knees shook and I felt nauseous. The remaining fifteen minutes of the drive home gave me time to contemplate life and the thing I kept hearing was this: Take risks, share your feelings with others, don’t wait to reach out to someone you care about or love. None of us are guaranteed a single day. Live every moment with your highest ability to give and receive love.

Too often we allow fear to keep us from letting someone know how we feel…appreciation, gratitude, love…we hold back and possibly never experience a precious relationship or special moment with a friend. Emotional honesty takes courage yet when we take the risk, we gain freedom.

Earlier on the drive home I had been thinking about the evening. Several people commented positively on my work or social media posts and perhaps for the first time I really heard them, took in their gift of emotional honesty and fully received their message. Not easy for me. So I was reflecting on the ability to receive such precious gifts just before the ‘scare.’

To my friends this evening who were gathered listening to Eric and David play their amazing music, thank you for embracing me with love and joy. For the sweetness of life we shared, I am profoundly grateful. Each of you is a jewel in my life, a unique and beautiful gem.

And if it had been my last night on this planet, the music was outstanding and as Eric sings, I get carried away. So thanks for the music guys.

And here’s a reminder for us all: Have the courage to tell someone how you feel. Hug freely, give of yourself, surrender to the work that wants to come through you and above all, love fully and completely.

And….thanks again angels. I don’t understand how miracles happen, but I know they do.

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.

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*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.