Love Poem #73

Wrote this well over 10 years ago. Have it on my personal Facebook profile but figured I'd share here, too.
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I adore you, Miss

So much I implore the Lord for more of this -

your kiss

transporting me to euphoric bliss.

Historically,

I'd launch more ships than the Trojan War did

for the glory of coming ashore

to your adoring lips

Pouring gifts at the altar of your temple

the simple pleasures of exploring your soul

being rewarded with treasures

more precious than the finest jewelry or gold;

You're my muse to make sure that our story gets told

For surely you hold

the key to my heart

you made it transform from the cold

& hard and soften it

with the gentle warmth of your soul

No,

distance isn't a hindrance when the touch of your words traverse oceans.

Is it such an absurd notion

that I'd entrust my emotions

to such beauty?

It's just my duty

to report what your touch does to me-

Reawakening love,

sentiments dormant for far too long.

The mark you've drawn

in the depths of my being

is indelible.

Unintelligible gibberish & shortage of words

have confirmed.

This is love that I fell into

Dear Christian, It's Okay to Love Yourself

I first started this blog post on August 28, 2015. I picked it back up November 14, 2015. It's something that I've been weighing for a while, searching for the right words to properly articulate. If something doesn't come across right, please just follow along to the end.

One thing I've noticed among Christians is struggling to embrace the concept of loving oneself. This is due to one of the core ideas of Christianity being that we, as individuals, are sinful and cannot attain right-standing with God on our own. Many Christians come to view themselves as wretched individuals who can only be saved by Christ. So when the discussion of loving oneself comes up, many Christians have a hard time with this. I struggled with this myself, on my own personal spiritual journey.

We are taught that loving yourself is pride. I would argue that the egocentric, prideful "self love" of the greedy and arrogant is not so much self love, but rather self lust. How can one truly love anyone if their definition of love is bastardized by a perception of the world that's been so heavily influenced by negative experiences? It's like making putting peanut butter and jelly on two slices of bread, sticking the two clean sides together, putting it on a plate and saying you know how to cook.

In order to truly love anyone, we must first learn to love ourselves. And in order to love ourselves, we must learn what love truly is. Christians think that loving ourselves is wrong, but not only is it NOT wrong, it's the will of God. I've experienced more spiritual growth and understanding in a few months of learning true love and loving myself than I had in years of studying and learning "the walk."

One of the most popular verses in the Bible, John 3:16, says that "God SO LOVED THE WORLD...." The core belief of Christianity is built upon the premise that God loves us. If God loves us, adores us, is it not an insult to the God we love to neglect this light He sees inside of us that He loves so much? "Love the sinner, hate the sin," correct? What is it in the sinner that God sees, that we are told to look at, that is so worthy of love? And if we are capable of seeing this in others, how can be fail to see it in ourselves?

What I think is important for Christians to understand is, when we talk about loving yourself we aren't talking about loving Ego. We are talking about loving your true nature. The real you. The divine within you. The Bible says that believers in Christ are new creations. This is the Higher Self. THIS is what God sees.

Imagine yourself in a pitch dark vacuum holding a flashlight. All around you it is pitch dark for miles and miles. Off in the distance is another person holding another flashlight. What do you see? Do you see darkness? No. You don't actually see darkness. Without light, nothing is visible. Darkness is simply an absence of light. It is this same very light that is found in every living soul. Ignorance and bad experiences can hinder this light, like a candle in a glass jar with dirt and char on the sides. But the light still exists. This is the light that light sees and recognizes.

Jesus gave only one commandment: Love. But he outlined it as such: Love the Lord your God with every fiber of your being, and love your neighbor.....AS YOURSELF. We are not commanded to love our neighbors more than ourselves. Yet this is what many Christians are taught in a twisted interpretation of laying down our lives. Laying down our lives means setting aside the ego, the light shade, and nurturing our light.

When Jesus walked the countryside healing the sick and being love, he withdrew to himself on a regular basis to pray and meditate. THIS is self love. He gave all that he had, but he did not fail to neglect himself. This applies to all aspects of life. If we revere our Creator, we nurture that which He created out of love. This extends to everything from maintaining spiritual health to proper physical and emotional health.

If somebody walks all over you, it is not love to sit back and tolerate it. This is abuse, and sitting back and allowing it to continue while you suffer is not being love. It is self-abuse. It is no different than sticking a needle in your arm and shooting up pure Afghan heroin. Would you allow someone to march into your house and urinate all over your belongings? When all is said and done, there is nothing more precious than our light, our soul. It is our very life, our very essence. So tell me exactly how it is the will of God to tolerate mistreatment and allow others to walk all over you....

The way we treat others is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. By standing up for ourselves in a loving manner, not only are we loving ourselves but we are saying to the person mistreating us that they aren't loving themselves and because we love them, we will not allow them to treat themselves in such a way. Take the bottle of whiskey out of the alcoholic's hand.

The way we treat others is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. It is only when we first learn self-love that we can truly love others according to what love truly is. Stop judging yourself, start loving yourself. We cannot change the past. What's done is done. In the eternal right here, right now, you are light and God is madly and deeply in love with you. What is it that this light sees in you that cause Him to send for an eternal vibration that causes atoms to collide in such a way so as to create the incredible physical universe in which we are a part? It is something so precious, it must be revered.

Nurture this light inside yourself. In doing so you will find that the shade of ego can no longer contain you. And in doing so you will place yourself in harmony with the light of creation, and others will be attracted to you like a beacon in the night. Not only is this okay to do, this is the very life we were created to live.

"A Greater Love Has No Man Than This...."

I've been tossing around the idea for this blog post for quite some time now, but I've finally been able to tie everything together on the morning of Good Friday, the 2nd most sacred of Christian holidays (after Easter). It is the day in which Christians world wide celebrate the death of the Christ for the redemption of humanity. A quote that has been attributed to Him goes as follows: "A greater love has no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends."

As a young Christian that verse spoke to me on a few levels. First of all, what touched me was the tremendous love of the Christ in willingly laying down His life for the sake of humanity. The second part was the last two words: "his friends." I was touched that the Christ saw us as his friends while making His sacrifice.

But that's not what this blog post is all about. My intended audience is not only people of the Christian faith, but truth seekers of all spiritual beliefs. I may seem to ramble and wander a bit in this post, but bear with me. I will touch upon a few points but it's really one central theme.

In recent months that quote from the Bible resonated with me in a different way. Because Christians believe the Christ physically died for mankind, the verse is often interpreted as choosing to physically die for our friends. But I'm not so sure that's all that was being said in that quote. Dying for one's friends doesn't have to be a physical death. We can die to self at any given point of any day. Laying down one's life for one's friends is a simple matter of laying down the ego out of love for others. Just as the Christ said, "If any man shall follow me he must carry his cross daily."

Selfish self-love vs. Selfless self-love

It is very important that I make clear what is meant by "death of ego", from a perspective of self-love. How can one be practicing self-love by denying ego? It's very simple. It's simply a matter of being aware of our role as an intricate piece of the whole of the universe. By setting aside selfishness, we are acknowledging that while we are important, no one of us is any more important than anyone else. We are actually loving ourselves by loving the whole

When we are being selfish (and choosing not to forgive is one example of a very harmful selfishness) we are not in harmony with the natural flow of the universe. The natural flow is love. If a cherry tree is planted in bad soil and not in harmony with nature, it will not bear fruit. The very purpose of the cherry tree is to produce cherries. That is its unique role in the universe. Apple trees cannot produce cherries. Only cherry trees can do so. Just so, each and every single one of us has something unique to offer to the whole of the universe. If we are not aligned properly, in good, nutrient-rich soil, we are not fulfilling our role in the whole.

We live in a symbiotic universe. No one person is an island. We are all deeply interconnected.

That being said, we must pursue our dreams. We are given dreams as part of our purpose in the whole. Do not deny yourself of your dreams, so long as your dreams are pursued in a loving way, respectful of the role of others along our path. Place yourself in good soil, surrounded by those who will nurture you in your pursuit of bearing your unique fruit. Those who would discourage us are toxic (usually because they, themselves, are not living in harmony with the flow of the universe at that particular moment).

To pursue our dreams is the highest form of worship and dedication. To focus our intent and energy on manifesting into reality the vision we have been given. And just as with all forms of worship, it is simply a matter of the attitude of our heart while performing the act. Lay down the ego, embrace your integral role in the universe. A greater love has no man than this.

Letting Go

People of faith love to give strength those going through trials and difficulties with these popular words of encouragement from the Bible: "God will never give you more than you can handle." But the thing is, those words don't appear in the Bible. And quite frankly, I don't believe those words to be true whatsoever.

There are times and situations in life when God/the Universe DOES throw at us more than we're capable of handling. Because we're not meant to shoulder these burdens. We're not supposed to handle it. We're supposed to learn to let go and trust in divine providence, knowing that the universe is constantly conspiring on our behalf. Step out of what your eyes see and gain proper eternal perspective. We cannot always change circumstances, but what we can change is our perception of the circumstances.

Learning to let go is a critical step in learning to love God and oneself. Fear wants us to hold on and try to maintain control. But fear is the opposite of love. Perfect love casts away all fear. Where love reigns, fear cannot reside. Usually we hold onto things out of the fear of letting go. Walking in love is not merely a matter of loving others, it is also a matter of walking fearlessly, confident and secure that our Creator loves us infinitely and all things we encounter in things life work for good, and ultimately lead us back to the same love that is the fabric of the manifest universe around us.

Let go of fear. Let go and let love.

I AM LOVE (Old poem)

This is a poem I wrote over two years ago. I've shared it on my personal Facebook page. Just wanted to share it here, too. Enjoy.

The consummation of passion

the give and take without asking

displayed in a fashion

like a fire blazing without ashes.

Amazing how it lasts it's

a flame devouring past actions

a tower and last bastion

of hope. A strong hold.

A grip and

a tight grasp in

arms so equipped

to hold and fight back

and maintain position

and when the road is night-black

the flame is given

to sustain the vision

the breath from whence came the mission

confessed it wasn't the best

then it changed condition

on a plane that's hidden

since I made the decision

to betray the way I was living

and now I'm living as slain

it isn't my brain or wisdom

not off the chain or the hinges.

Humility

makes me seem insane or just different.

indifferent

to what they say 'cause it isn't

in my realm of influence

when I hear You speak my name.

Paul said to Let it Be

but I question the referee

lead to see

my destiny

in e-ver-y

breath I breathe

Befriending thieves

with a di-ffer-ent weaponry

the kind you spell with L-O-V

and of course it ends with E

Dwelling in the breast of the

universal Entity

on bended knee

broke the shackles of self to set me free

Can it be

that death to me

lead to a life of ecstasy?

Invoke the wrath of enemies

when I chose a path so heavenly

And no matter the setting He

holds me with a steady Peace,

knowing He selected me,

owing no indemnities.

And so it goes, eventually

you'll know the road I'm mentioning

where life, it flows and ebbs like seas

in motion with their beckoning.

Submerge in me

yield our life to Eternity's hands;

acknowledge our smallness,

no longer concerned with our plans

Listen closely,

a whisper

in the soul of a Man

So simple, a sentiment,

with no scolding demands.

I LOVE YOU.