Be Where Love Is...

"My heart, sit only with those

who know and understand you.

Sit only under a tree

that is full of blossoms.

In the bazaar of herbs and potions

don't wander aimlessly,

find the shop with a potion that is sweet.

If you don't have a measure

people will rob you in no time.

You will take counterfeit coins

thinking they are real.

Don't fill your bowl with food from

every boiling pot you see.

Not every joke is humorous, so don't search

for meaning where there isn't one.

Not every eye can see,

not every sea is full of pearls.

My heart, sing the song of longing

like nightingale.

The sound of your voice casts a spell

on every stone, on every thorn.

First, lay down your head,

then one by one

let go of all distractions.

Embrace the light and let it guide you

beyond the winds of desire.

There you will find a spring and

nourished by its sweet waters

like a tree you will bear fruit forever."

 –Rumi

Via: Love Is A Place

I was lamenting to a friend recently about the dynamics of my family of origin and how challenging it is to be around an angry alcoholic who hates the world and acts with disgust toward everyone, making faces at both my mother and me...  TMI?  J  Maybe, but this is the reality of facing into life as it is…  I sometimes want to recoil, and find my heart contracting in the face of such disdain - not wanting to be wounded again, vowing that *I* do *not* have to endure this behavior - clearly failing in the "unconditional love" department. :)  And yet, I return and try to keep the Heart open once again...  But I also made this comment to my friend: “I need to be where Love is…” – as Rumi points to in his poem – to be in the unprotected ease and openness of people who *know* LOVE.  But do any of us really *know* Love - the pure Essence of Love…  Sometimes our families of origin are not where we find Love – the unconditional kind of Love that nurtures, and allows us to flourish.  I'm sure some of you have already experienced this…   And so, where do I find this Heart of Love, how do I come to know this Love more deeply myself, so that I may be present in and to a family who doesn’t *know* real Love, but is caught up in the matrix of their madness?   

It is in the deep Silence during meditative times that I experience this expansive Love the most.  We are immersed in this vast open *space* of Love that holds us and embraces us without condition - from within...  The Heart of Love is within. 

“And so the journey continues…  Your Heart takes you…..to an endless landscape of love that knows no boundaries.  And the wind is real and the snow continues to fall and the love continues, and will always continue.  So you can leave behind those old worn clothes that you called your existence, those ways you used to walk when you thought you were alive.  Because here in this place that is like no other there is the freedom you always knew, a freedom that belongs to love.

Do not be discouraged…..when the wheels of existence carry you always along roads you would rather not travel.  There is this other land, this landscape that belongs to love.  This is the place where the two seas meet [meaning where human and Divine meet], where existence reveals its secrets, where time uncovers what always was, even if you have never seen it before.

 You *are* the place where the two seas meet, where love is uncovered…  There is always this place, the vastness [of love] that calls to us.  Remember, it is always here.  It cannot be anywhere else."

 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

From: Fragments of a Love Story


You might also be interested in reading the post:
Prickly Personalities 
about how I met this prickly situation two years ago...

Photo:  My new Amaryllis in full bloom!

Evoking Love J