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We We We

June 21, 2020

Today is also Father’s Day — and since this month’s heart-centered practice is all about shifting out of me-first, me-centered thinking into we-always heart-centered living Love, I want to share how my dad and I have always been a we and always will be a we. . .and why that even matters.

When I was little, my dad was often away from home. He was lecturing about art, he was buying art for Sears, he was making movies with Roger Corman, he was doing this or that television show, he was working on behalf of the Indian Arts & Crafts Board of the US Department of the Interior, he was on this or that TV show, he was writing books and doing book tours. And none of that mattered, because when he was with me, I felt filled with his presence — the presence of Living Love. And when he wasn’t with me, I carried him in my heart. So I still felt filled with the presence of Living Love.

That taught me that Love is what is always present. And that Love is all that matters.

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Well

June 20, 2020

We are all waking up to all the ways that the lies we have believed about ourselves and one another have caused pain, and instead we are choosing Love. And when we do that, and keep doing that, ALL WILL BE WELL.

W: Wake Up

W: We not me.

W: Well. All will be well.

W: When we choose Love and keep choosing Love. When we live Love.

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June

June 19, 2020

Today is Juneteenth. A day of promise and hope — promise and hope that the United States did not deliver.

And yet, here we are, still trying.

Here we are, over 150 years later, incrementally acknowledging our failures — and endeavoring to do better.

Here we are still having to say Black and Brown Lives Matter.

Many businesses have declared Juneteenth a holiday.

And so today, instead of writing a long blog, I am going to take a holiday, too. And instead of writing, I’m going to look at how this heart-centered practice of we can contribute to the change I want to be in the world.

Will you join me?

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All the Hemispheres

June 18, 2020

Many of us are living in much more isolation than usual. So the opportunities to put we into practice other than in our thinking is a bit more limited. This week the isolation began to get to me. So when I re-read this poem by one of my favorite poets, it was just what I needed. So I thought I’d share it with you, in case you need it, too.

We Love

June 17, 2020

There’s a lot of talk these days about how we are going to heal our world from the divisions that are killing us, from the destructive behaviors that are devastating our planet. In this month’s heart-centered practice of we, I have been both practicing and blogging about shifting out of me-first thinking into to we-first living. This is the essence of recovery. Recovery is what we are all seeking. So why not take a page from the Twelve Step movement and admit that we have all become powerless because we have sought fear-based answers to fear-produced problems that have made us feel that we no longer live in Love. Our lives HAVE become unmanageable. But when we remember that there is a Power greater than ourselves that can restore us to sanity, to wholeness — and that that Power is Love — then we can consciously choose to live Love by turning our wills and lives over to Love — as we understand Love. In other words, live Love.

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Our

June 16, 2020

Jesus said that there were only two commandments anyone had to obey: To love God and to love each other. And then he said that God is Love.

And then he gave the world this prayer. This prayer that exemplifies and expresses living Love. The Love of God toward us and our love toward one another.

Let me say that another way: Basically Jesus said to love Love and to love each other and to pray to Love, in Love, as Love as we not me.

Nowhere ever did he justify hate or killing or any form of violence or discrimination in his name. Ever.

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Groupthink vs Wethink

June 15, 2020

If I see myself as one with you in Love, then I know we share common ground.

If I see you as one with me in Love, then I know we are both the loved of Love.

If every choice I make is made with the goal of the best possible outcome for we instead of me, then I have to turn my thoughts, beliefs, decisions and actions over to Love — or I’m not choosing we. Only Love can guide a we-first choice.

Groupthink is fear-based. Wethink is Love-based.

Groupthink is me first. Wethink is we first.

We First

June 14, 2020

Everyone raised in any religion or spiritual tradition anywhere was taught something called the Golden Rule.

A rule is an explicit regulation or principle governing conduct. A rule is a law.

.We all know that the only law that truly exists is the Law of Love.

The Law of Love is the Law of We.

We Are Each Other's

June 13, 2020

we are each other’s

harvest:

we are each other’s

business:

we are each other’s

magnitude and bond.

- Gwendolyn Brooks

We Shall

June 12, 2020

People keep asking what we need to do — and the answer is the same each time. Choose Love. Listen in Love. Live Love. Lean into Love. Learn from Love. And then just love one another. Over and over and over again.

So this morning, as I was listening for what I needed to hear to do to do that, the thought came to me. What if the basis for every action, to do, thought was we instead of I?

Welcome Begins with WE

June 11, 2020

The word welcome comes from the Old English wilcuma — ‘a person whose coming is pleasing’. The first element was later changed to wel- ‘well’, influenced by Old French bien venu or Old Norse velkominn .

The word welcome connotes an invitation, joy in being in the company of another, a desired connection.

The word welcome begins with the word we.

What We Need Is Here

June 10, 2020

So how do we shift the pattern? Get quiet. Look all around us at the world showing us how. “And we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. What we need is here.”

And what is here is Love.

Today, instead of judgment, I get quiet in heart and in eye, clear. And I will listen to the Love that is here.

We the People

June 9, 2020

the first two phrases of this preamble give us all our collective directive: WE (the people) . . . in order to form a more Perfect Union. . .

We means all of us. Every single one of us. Understanding that we are not a nation of I’s or me’s, but one nation forming a We the People.

And what are we continually trying to do? To form a MORE Perfect Union.

In other words, we are continually trying to be better at being We the People.

We the Willing

June 8, 2020

Will is a closed fist.

Willing is an outstretched hand.

Will is a hard declarative statement.

Willing is a soft connective question.

Will is a hard boot on pavement.

Willing is walking softly upon our earth.

W(hol)E

June 7, 2020

We are never not part of the Whole. No one is ever not part of the Whole. We are all part of the same Whole. And the Whole We is Love.

Everything that is happening right now in the world is bringing all the lies that we have allowed ourselves to believe — or even just passively accept— to the surface to be seen. And when they are seen in Love, then they begin to melt away because they are lies.

Clean House

June 6, 2020

Every white person in the world has to keep looking at our histories and our habits and our assumptions and our privilege. We have to keep having the hard conversations and building new coalitions and connections. But we also have to invite Love to the table to transform all of our thoughts and words and actions into heart-centered practices.

In recent years, creating heart-centered practices has healed a lifelong habit of rude and chronic lateness. I was never ever on time — and it infuriated everyone who loved me or who worked with me. I have healed the looming presence of my mother in my life that I used to keep me in cripplingly virulent self-loathing. So I know this stuff works.

Believe

June 5, 2020

Last night I went on a field trip.

My wonderful next door neighbor arranged for me to follow a friend of hers on a 45-minute drive out into the forest to see something that only happens once a year — and only in this part of the world.

Now Go We Forth

June 4, 2020

Go forth into the world in peace;
Be of good courage, Hold fast that which is good,
Render to no one evil for evil.
Go forth into the world in peace.
Strengthen the fainthearted,
support the weak,
Help the afflicted,
Honor all persons.

On Our Knees

June 3, 2020

Yesterday social media was blacked out. It was a great symbolic gesture — just as kneeling as become a symbolic gesture. But are symbolic gestures enough? They are certainly a start.

But for real transformation to happen, I believe that we must all be down on our knees both in humility and in prayer to the Love that is the only thing that can heal all our wounds.

We are living in a country where at the highest level there is no heart-centered Love-based leadership. So it is up to each of us to love even more. To get down on our knees and acknowledge our part in the problems. To get down on our knees in humility and honesty. To get down on our knees in deep conversations about change. To get down on our knees and invoke the Love that can heal. And to keep getting down on our knees in communion, solidarity, and prayer.

Speak We

June 2, 2020

Today my heart-centered practice is to speak we. And to speak we all day long.

Because

Silence equals complicity.

Silence equals complacency.

Silence equals avoidance.

Silence equals acceptance.

Silence equals denial.

Silence equals violence.

We have to raise our voices to speak the Truth in Love.

That is how we speak we.

We cannot keep living me-centered lives as if something that is happening to someone else or another community is not our issue. ANYTHING THAT IS NOT LOVE NEEDS HEALING.