Basking In The Arms Of Love

Love Is The Most Powerful Force & Presence In The Universe

Tonight I’m basking in the arms of love.  You know the feeling?

I just returned home from a benefit in a small venue with Jason Mraz, Bushwalla, and Luc and the Lovingtons.  The causes were organizations that work toward ending slavery and human trafficking.

Bushwalla is always hilarious and amazing.  Check him out:  Acoustic Rhymer That dude knows how to entertain in the coolest of cool ways.  He’s wild in the best sense of the word.

Mraz keeps it real – he pours love out like the supply is endless – and it is.  He reminds us.   Lucky for us he throws in a good dose of irreverent humor.  Always a plus.   Check out my post: My God Dances

Luc and the Lovingtons, wow!  Love and more love.  Outrageous music and, you got it, LOVE.  Check out this video:  http://bit.ly/98MtYP

Oh, and then there was the guy, Benjerman,  who painted a large piece during the concert to reflect the moment.  It was beautiful!  He lived 15 years in the Amazon and his dream is to open a spiritual center in Columbia.  He told great stories that warmed the heart.

Luc took the opportunity to volunteer in New Orleans just after Hurricane Katrina.  He found himself in a shelter,  and as you can imagine it was bleak.  He found a way to bring hope and joy alive with his music and went back to record a song he and the children at the shelter created.  The female lead is a 10-year old.  Check it out:  Luc And The Lovingtons  Freedom Song

Jason Mraz discovered it and loved it.  He’s spread the word by sharing it as well: Jason Mraz with Voices of Prayze – Freedom Song

The Morning After

It’s the next day now and the fun and joy continued over at Jitter’s Cafe:

Benjerman (forgive me for butchering the spelling) is the guy on the left in the hat).

Feeding The Soul and Soulfulness

Being in a room with a couple hundred souls who care and want to love is a powerful, uplifting experience.  It’s good for the soul. Like the sound of a drum, it brings us back to center.

The message, the music, the painting, the dancing, the stories, the camaraderie, it all takes us home.  Home to who we are.  Home to love. 

We ARE love. Love is not in short supply on this planet. You simply need to look in the direction where love resides.

Your Focus = Your Life

Your life is largely a reflection of where you choose to focus. Where you focus most will reveal the quality of your life.

If your focus is on the news and conversations about the terrible state of our planet, you may lose sight of the tremendous beauty that is unfolding before your eyes daily. The beauty that is nature, a child’s face, outrageous music, street art, or irreverent humor.

At least a million organizations are contributing to human rights, social justice, and environmental integrity on a daily basis. Turn your attention there and feel the empowerment and sacredness of being a beacon of light and hope.

Take a look at this organization I learned of at the concert that Luc and the Lovingtons contribute to:  Harmonic Humanity.  Check out this video about Harmonic Humanity’s contribution of love to the disenfranchised through music.  This organization provides CD’s of artist’s music to homeless people in San Francisco for $1.00 per CD.  The homeless individual can sell it for $10.00.  It’s about hope and dignity. This organization hopes to spread this concept to other communities. If you feel inspired, it would be a great contribution to your community.

The Ugly and The Beautiful

The destructive and the beautiful are both “realities”. Both exist.  How would we know beauty and love if there were nothing to compare it to?

Which reality do you prefer to live is the relevant question?

Choosing to focus more upon beauty than destruction doesn’t mean you are living with “rose colored” glasses.   Who would deny that destruction and pain exist?  And at times we experience dark nights of the soul. How we process and engage with these experiences says everything about our characters and resilience.

If I fall, I rise again.   Friends support me.  I them.    My choice is to believe in love, imperfect love. How about you?

What brings you joy?

Speaking of joy:   Check out Arvind Devalia’s picinic = fun. Arvind is an uplifter.

Lately, for me it’s been my new found passion for the Djembe, movement, the hula hoop I have my eye on, and thoughts of my next trip to Esalen keeping my brain in a state of “oh yeah”.

It’s this moment of inspiration, a happiness in my heart.  Awed that love exists at all as we rotate around spinning on a beautiful planet in outer space.

It’s jumping off the rope into the creek with my 8-year old nephew and friend over and over again and then wiping each other out with water balloons.

I’ve taken lots of time this summer to play after a stretch of intense “work”.  Loving my work is the icing on the cake.  Still, playing is wonderful and I love it!  On sunny days, I look at my work and then look out at the beach and ask myself what I want to do that day.  It takes me about one minute to grab my boogie board and head out the door – the beach always beckons and why not.

Years ago I recall a Demartini exercise which involved writing down what you most love and doing it as much as possible.  I realized what I loved most was being at the ocean.  I dreamed of being at the ocean daily.  Today I see it from my home and hear the waves as I lay down to sleep.

Have you done the things that bring you joy recently? If not, no worries, just do!

If you haven’t thought about what brings a smile to your lips, write down 5 things that bring you joy and list them in order of importance (like the Demartini exercise).

What do YOU love? How can you incorporate it into your life regularly?   What can you do today?

If You Want To Be Uplifted, Be With Uplifting People

The concert and the people in the room was a great reminder that if you want to feel uplifted be with uplifting people – and be an uplifter.

If you want love, give love.

Surround yourself with people who care about others and care about the planet.  People who know how to love.

Be a person who cares.  Shine! 

Recognize and claim your magnificence and the tremendous opportunity of being in your remarkable body on this planet (if I hear one more woman criticize her body, I shall weep).

I mean, let’s get real, we’re on a beautiful earth spinning around in outer space.  Now, that’s more outrageous than  science fiction.

Get excited (pant pant):   You get to be here in your body having your own unique life.  Grasp onto the possibility that you create your life and have at it.

Have some fun!  Feed your soul!  Play!   Write me about what you’re doing these days that you love. What inspires and uplifts you?

Be well, and may you experience the best relationships ever!

A song to you:  I Luv Ya Luv Ya – Luc and The Lovingtons on their Feel The Warmth CD.

Photo Courtesy:  h.koppdelaney

Tagged as: community, love, relationship