The Courage to Love Who You Judge

Do you have the courage to love what is happening in the world today? Too often these past months I have found myself appalled by what I see and hear, even from loved ones.

You probably know what I mean. Turning off the news is not enough. Affirming the light is not enough.

And fighting back leaves your insides in knots.

None of it is pretty. Most importantly, it doesn’t feel effective! It changes nothing in this polarized stand-off currently masquerading as our civilized society. Actually, the masquerade has been shredded. We don’t look very civilized, do we?

We are staring into the belly of the beast.

It is nothing less than our civilization that is at stake.

Racism. Sexism. Inequality of resources. Judgment. Blame. Fear. Rage. All of it–whatever may lie within your focus today.

Every way that we are separate from ourselves, each time we cast out the otherness that lives within us, we damage the collective energetic matrix that holds this planet. That impact reverberates and finds expression in these now daily assaults of judgment, viciousness, rage and terrorism.

Wherever love does not exist

Despots become more powerful, their control taking root and spreading. We have walked the path of ignorance and avoidance before. We have seen where it leads.

Do we need to go there again? Hasn’t it been enough?

Control ⇒ dictator.

Anger ⇒ rage.

Seeing the other as different/less than ⇒ other is a “pollutant” ⇒ gas chamber.

Fear of loss/fear of lack/fear of change ⇒ attack/polarized rage.

Dear Other: I pretend that you are not me. That you are so utterly different from me—in your fear and your railing against change, in your shrinking back and in your striking out.

It isn’t true though, is it?

It is time, now, for us, individually and collectively, to own up and rise up.

What an opportunity!

We must not turn away. We must not turn our backs on these outrageous expressions of disaffection. For they are the reflection of what lives inside of us and the only way forward is to engage. That is what will allow the light to shine.

How, you may rightfully ask?

You may already know that your path is one of speaking out. Of calling out injustice, of protesting its existence. You demand change—and your voice is essential.

Or you may feel called to help steer the ship. To hold fast to the course with stability and calm. You are so needed!

The love is within

No matter how you feel called to act, first go within. Within is where true north resides. Within is where you get your true “marching orders,” your direction. Within is where the love is.

It is this connection with Source, inside, where you are home. It is where you are most who are you really are. So, if you do not know how to find this connection, truth will suffer.

So if you are to hold the banner high, first drape it in love.

Why do I say this?

Because outrage voiced from the fullness of who you are, will change the world. And this is what is needed now.

You have witnessed the absence of self-love. You know how this goes. Fear rushes in to fill in that vacuum. Its voice is shrill and is intent on obliterating all other sound. Where fear thrives, hate arises. Rage is kindled by fear and explodes into violence.

This inner divisiveness is reflected everywhere. When you regard it from the outside, you see a poisonous mass. It is nothing you would venture into willingly. Avoid it if you can. Dismiss it outright.

However, if you are willing, look on he or she whom you judge and see that God is alive and well within them. Begin to listen for the fear that drives the judgment.

And if you simply cannot or will not do that, I understand.

Nonetheless, it is the challenge that I make to you, dear heart. Dear hero.

Unsheathe your sharpened sword, open your courageous and brilliant heart.

Herein lies the truth: self-love and spaciousness

First, it is self-love that is needed in these demanding times. Self-love arises from a connection with the Presence within—the life force.

In the throes of one of the most painful and challenging personal situations in my own life, after my tears had nowhere else to go, I found myself turned inside with new direction.

I went into the agony and tasted the freedom within it.

I discovered that there was spaciousness. That the spaciousness of love existed within my despair.

Stay with me here. Because this is for you, too. This is how you find the courage to love, no matter what.

Whatever is impacting you, whatever may feel like a poisonous mass, enter into the center of it. When you look for the spaces between, there is more to discover. It’s not solid and impenetrable, like you believed.

Let it get so big that it envelops you. As it does that, remember to breathe; Keep at it: look for the spaces.

How are the spaces intermingled with these other elements? Even the elements themselves, when you enter into them, they become spacious. Even they are not the solid mass you would imagine. Remember, an atom contains space between its particles.

How this helps

What is this way of seeing? How does it help you to address your experience?

The only way that change is possible, is from within the spaces themselves. If you stand with the element of hate and only look at it from the outside, you will feel condemnation and separation. If, however, you are willing, you can enter into the hate and find where it becomes porous.

The deeper that you enter into the center, the more spacious it becomes. From within the spaces, comes the light. It is there. It exists. As you align with the light, the light expands. It begins to impact the element itself. The balance changes. The make-up is altered.

But this can only take place from within.