I realize that my motivation for blogging about love was all the negativity out and about in the world. I was and am just plain old tired of it. I see the negativity affecting people in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. I see it affecting me. But in calling for a collective "quest" for love, I realize I got it wrong. It is actually self-defeating to look for love completely free of any negativity. One of my spiritual mentors recently reminded me that we must hold the light and the darkness together. Because if we reach only for the light, we will be disappointed. Light alone is illusionary. Light that co-exists with darkness is not.
In fact, the more we talk about "looking for" love, we miss the very valuable joy that exists NOW, the joy that maybe we only see glimpses of at present, but that needs to be nurtured and grown like anything that is cared for. That picture above is of a lotus flower, a flower found throughout India. What is special to me about the lotus flower is that it is born from and grows amidst mud and muck, slowly growing up towards the waters' surface and continually moving towards the light. Although some may give up on the lotus flower, those who don't and who nurture it are treated to pure beauty when it blossoms. The kamala, born of the lotus, emerges.
Let us awaken to the love around us now, not just the 'ideal' love we crave at some illusory point in the future. Let's hold darkness and light together. Let's celebrate the shining of the light, as faint as it may be, into the darkness.
Do you remember what Gibran says? He says we can't separate one from the other. "The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."
May I not give up on the love that exists NOW in my life and in the world.
1 comment:
Hi Meetali. I shared with you that this post is my favorite one thus far. It's a powerful observation--the light we desperately seek should never be blinding unless we are prepared to enter darkness again.
Although I ultimately rejected Taoism's often hard, dualistic language, I always believed that the idea of Yin-Yang unity described important principles, as reiterated in your post. The nature of Yin-Yang is to transform and balance, but in all, they are rooted in one another. They are part of a single movement as a mutual whole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_yang).
Your post reminds me that we are both lightness and darkness, and for that reason we need both, too.
Post a Comment