I’m amazed by the way these heart-centered practices of presence and joy are rolling out this year. Toward the end of each previous month, I begin thinking about what the next month’s practice needs to be. Ideas percolate up — and some of them seem terrific. But I’ve learned to wait and keep listening. Each time I do, the practice that surfaces seems to be not only just what I need to learn, but also totally reflective of what the world is going through.
It’s a reminder that the more we listen to Love, the more our lives will reflect Love. It’s that simple.
This month’s practice of we began as a an endeavor to take what I’ve learned in isolation about our planet, about the systemic inequities revealed during this time, about the fact that we can all see that we are one world — out into my everyday interactions and experiences.
But of course, it has ended up being the perfect heart-centered practice as every white person begins to unpack the race-based privilege that has created such inherent inequality — not to mention violence and death — in the United States (and around the globe).
People keep asking what we need to do about this — 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?
When I was a little girl, the morning prayer I was taught to say upon awakening ended with these three sentences:
Father: What shall we do today? Tell us and we shall obey.
Over the years, that prayer has morphed and changed. Although I grew up with a loving father, I know that the big daddy white beard white God has not been a God of Love and Equality. So I changed the word Father to Love. I also struggled with the word obey for a while. I wanted to be a rebel. Until my beloved dog Jack — who was a free spirit and had a mind of his own — learned to obey when he came to understand that the reason I wanted him to obey was because I loved him so much and didn’t want him to get hurt by running onto a street or in some other way. When he saw that he was obeying Love, he stopped resisting. That taught me that of course I, too, would want to obey Love, because whatever Love asks is always for our benefit.
But the one thing that ha never changed is the we. When I pray that prayer, I imagine the whole world listening to Love for what Love is asking of us, and then obeying Love’s directive.
And then. . .
I go off and do my own thing.
In other words, the we part of the prayer stays in the wee hours of the morning.
Which is why today the thought came to substitute we for I in everything I think, ask, and do — and then see where that leads.
I’m hungry becomes we’re hungry.
I’m tired of staring at the computer screen becomes we’re tired of staring at the computer screen.
I wish I could . . .
I feel in judgment of. . .
I would rather or rather not. . .
With each of those, by substituting we for I, first of all, I shift out of the me first mentality.
Second, I get to think about the larger ramifications and consequences of any choice I make.
Third, in everything I do or think, I have to hold seemingly opposing thoughts and actions as part of the we in which we all live.
And fourth — and most important — I have to turn all of that over to the We of Love in which we actually al live and in which we are always all One.
So I’m going to give it a try today and see how it goes. I have a feeling that it’s going to bring that childhood prayer to life. Because here’s the honest truth: When I ask Love what shall we do today? We is lip service. I’m really mostly interested in me. When I say Tell us — now I’m really thinking of me. In fact, I’m almost in pleading mode. Tell ME! And when I’m in pleading mode, it means that I’ve already forgotten that Love is always telling us. But we only hear Love if we’re listening. That means that the “we shall obey” then is conditional. As in: If you actually tell me, well THEN I’ll obey. As though I’m doing something grand and noble and praiseworthy. And I might get a treat!
That’s not the point!
Love: What shall we do today? This is a prayer for the whole world. A prayer that we will all listen to Love. A prayer that we will all stop living me-first, me-only lives.
But “tell us”. . . well, maybe it’s time for another change to my childhood prayer. Instead of that anxious command. Perhaps it’s time to acknowledge that Love is always telling us by loving us and that that in itself is our answer to what we shall do today. Today we shall love. That’s the answer. So — Thank you for telling us.
And of course we shall obey because we know that we are here to love, everyone is here to love and that love is the only answer to all of our problems.
So today I will truly take that prayer out into the world by consciously substituting we for I.
Love: What shall we do today?
LOVE.
Thank you for telling us. All of us. Every single one of us is getting the same message.
And we can all heart it. And when we do, of course we shall obey. Because Love is reflected in love and we are here to love.
So we shall obey — by loving.
We shall LOVE.
We.
Not I.
All of us.
We shall.
We.
And this is how — together — WE love our world whole.
This we shall starts here and now. Today.