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be love, be4peace, beloved, bloggers for peace, Daniel Ladinsky, Hafiz, love, peace, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, postaday2013, practicing peace, Valentine's Day, with that moon language
Valentine’s Day: A day to celebrate Love. 
Love is so much more than we even know. We have barely scratched the surface of how to live in love. Teilhard de Chardin says: “Love is the most powerful and still the most unknown energy of the world.”
In my email yesterday, I received this quote:
“Abiding in the self, you become the valentine for the whole world. Spirit is the valentine of matter, and matter is the valentine of the spirit. They are made for each other. They uphold each other. If you hold onto matter and do not respect the spirit, then matter is not pleased. If you honor the spirit, then you will care for the world. When you care for the world, it will take care of you.” Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Embodied beings that we are, we must honor ourselves and each other, and in doing so, honor the spirit of love that runs through and beyond our physical being. Deep love has nothing to do with romance, and everything to do with Peace.
A love that honors all of existence must be the same thing as peace. How can it not be? When we love deeply, we can allow the process of life ~ whatever it looks like. It doesn’t mean we have to like the bad bits as much as the good bits, but we can allow those bits, we can see the beauty, and watch how it all brings us around to gratitude and appreciation. Anything that is loved with purity, and allowed to be exactly as it is, changes in that acceptance. In the presence of love, we grow and expand, and in true love, we know peace.
Life – in all of its glorious expression, from joy to pain and back again – is all about Love. Here we are – you, me, this life. How deeply, I wonder, can we let ourselves love?
Today, on Valentine’s Day, try this simple practice ~
Look in the eyes of everyone you meet, and see your beloved.
Yes. I do acknowledge that simple does not necessarily mean easy. Still, can we see love in the eyes of everyone we meet? Can we be the love they need? And if we can…. how does that change us? Will it lead to peace? Are we willing to give it a shot? Personally, I think it is worth experimenting with….
Below is a lovely poem by Hafiz. Enjoy, and on this beautiful day, may you know deeply that you are loved. Peace, and Many Blessings ~
With That Moon Language, by Hafiz (as translated by Daniel Ladinsky)
Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them,
“Love me.”
Of course you do not do this out loud;
Otherwise
Someone would call the cops.
Still though, think about this,
This great pull in us
To connect.
Why not become the one
Who lives with a full moon in each eye
That is always saying,
With that sweet moon
Language
What every other eye in this world
Is dying to
Hear?
~~
“A universal love is not only psychologically possible: it is the only complete and final way in which we are able to love.” ~ Teilhard de Chardin
~~
This post is part of a monthly contribution to the collective attention being placed on peace in the blog-o-sphere. Bloggers for Peace is the brainchild of Kozo at Everyday Gurus. Read about it here, and if you like, write your own post for peace. We’re all in this together – imagine the energy of many people across the world sharing their thoughts on peace, and bringing attention to the peace that is already here. Yup, Peace is Possible!
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- Israel and Iran: A love story? B4Peace
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Radical Amazement 
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“Anything that is loved with purity, and allowed to be exactly as it is, changes in that acceptance. In the presence of love, we grow and expand, and in true love, we know peace.” Is this really acceptance? Or is it perhaps “affirmation” and or “understanding” that’s really being given? Accepting something so that it can change, isn’t really acceptance of that thing, is it? Unless accepting the fact that it can and ought change is part of that acceptance too. I accept the acorn as it is, meaning that I acknowledge or affirm that this is an acorn here in front of me, but I also realize that this same acorn if placed in the ground, watered, nurtured, et cetera, is destined to be something much different than this acorn: it’s destined to be a tree, a small tree at first, but perhaps a mighty and tall tree with time, and in that time it will produce more acorns. So what exactly am I accepting when I accept an acorn and acorniness? Am I not accepting it’s passingness, transitoriness, changeability, transience? To me, “acceptance” is an ill-defined and muddy concept.
What do you think?
And love the Hafiz poem! I used it last Tues in my post before Valentine’s Day. It’s a great poem about affirming others and tuning into them and giving them love, attention, understanding, and getting ourselves out of receiving and begging mode, and realizing the bigger picture. Reminds me of that story of the people at the two banquets where a delicious soup or stew was served and everyone had 3 ft long spoons: in one room, everyone was starving and miserable; in the other room, everyone was happy and well-fed. In one room, they must’ve read Hafiz.
Very nice post, and I’m glad to have found your blog through Kozo’s reblog of this post.
Warmest regards,
John
Hello John, and thank you so much for your thoughtful comment.
You said: “Accepting something so that it can change, isn’t really acceptance of that thing, is it?”
Of course not. Accepting something SO that it will change is not real acceptance. Perhaps the better word to use is allowing. When something is allowed to be exactly as it is, when we accept this moment as it is, simply because it IS, then there is potential for change and for growth. In other words, we create a space for change and growth, should that be what is needed or wanted. Allowing something to be as it is also includes allowing that thing to evolve as it needs to evolve.
When we do not accept what is, we create a sort of resistance – both in ourselves and in the thing or in that person that we are not accepting. That resistance can take the form of a wall, or a pushing away, or refusal to grow, or maybe a distortion in its growth. Do you see? In a person, maybe our lack of acceptance causes them to squelch their creativity, for example, whereas allowing them to express in the manner they choose to express, their creativity can evolve; they step into their center, their love.
So yes, accepting the fact that an acorn can and ought to change is, in fact, accepting the acorn – we see it for what it is and allow it to be that way. We don’t have the need to make it be something other than what it is, and we don’t want to stop it from becoming the tree that it will become.
Semantics, perhaps. I think that your words speak to exactly what I meant to say, and so feel free to plug in your own preferred word. 🙂
Very glad you enjoy the Hafiz poem. So beautiful. And also very glad you came by to have a conversation ~ I love that!
Blessings ~
Amy
Very peaceful blog! Happy Valentine’s Day — today may be belated, but the same sentiment exists! 🙂
Thanks, Jean, and happy day to you too! Yup, I think love is for the every day 🙂
Reblogged this on everyday gurus and commented:
Please read this day-late Valentine’s Post for peace. Here is a sample of it’s magic: “Look in the eyes of everyone you meet, and see your beloved.”
Amy,
//bow// I am so grateful to be able to read your words.||bow|| I love so much here. The Hafiz and Shankar quotations. The see the beloved quote. The love. The spirit. Thank you so much for sharing. {{{Hugs}}} Kozo
Aw, Kozo, thank you so much for coming by and commenting. I am happy to share ~ it is just a part of this grand movement of peace blogging that you inspired! 🙂 Thank you also for re-blogging my post – I am honored. //bow//
Wonderful writing. The yellow highlight segment for me is: “Look in the eyes of everyone you meet……” I treasure this because when I do this gesture and smile, it ‘wakes people up,’ as though the person had been asleep and going through the day that way. The person usually smiles back. A face changes when the light comes into that face, and the light is a smile answering mine, and the light is something the person feels. It looks to me like weight being lifted from them, if even for a few seconds.
Diana – I agree – it is such a beautiful practice. Sometimes easier to do than others, but always worth while. What a simple way to be peace, eh?
Thanks for linking the Israel-Iran article, Amy – Love, tomas
It is a great article, Tomas! Thanks for coming by here too 🙂
Happy Day dear Amy. I love Hafiz. Thank you.
Me too, Jane. Glad you are still hanging out with me here! I owe you an email… I will get on that! 🙂
Wow, that was beautiful – thank you for those very inspiring words. I can feel it all making a difference, starting to shift, and what greater gift is there.
Much Love
Sandy, what a nice comment! I love when words create a shift ~ they become what we need to hear, and it’s as if a universal force runs through the words and all of us. Happens to me with other peoples words too, and that’s when I think we must just be the vehicle. Love that. Thanks for coming by and leaving a comment.
A lovely and more universal way to celebrate St. Valentine. Thank you for the inspiration, Amy.
Thanks, composer. Glad to see you here ~ Happy Valentine’s Day!
Fantastic thoughts on this day. I think the more people focus on love, the better the world will be on Valentine’s Day and every day.
Me too, Jonathan, and you said the key words: Every Day! 🙂