The Graze V.141: Love That Changes Everything

Dear Friends:

Mid-morning, the fog at Mission Farm clears and the sun peeks through the clouds and shines on the icy ground below. That moment fills me with a sense of the beauty and grace of this amazing world.

I am reminded that I am a part of this spectacular beauty. I am drawn to this meditation offered in the new year (in 2009) by Thich Nhat Hanh. The Buddhist practice of Metta meditation directs loving kindness toward ourselves and then, in a sequence of expansion, towards somebody we already love. Then somebody are neutral towards. Somebody we have difficulty with. And ultimately toward all beings everywhere.

This practice is fully compatible with our own practice of connection. Consider this blessing, written for use at the Burning Man annual festival by Brian Baker, an Episcopal priest and former Dean in Sacramento. He describes his experience in this blog post.

The world now is too dangerous
and too beautiful for anything but love.

May your eyes be so blessed you see God in everyone.

Your ears, so you hear the cry of the poor.

May your hands be so blessed
that everything you touch is a sacrament.
Your lips, so you speak nothing but the truth with love.

May your feet be so blessed you run
to those who need you.

And may your heart be so opened,
so set on fire, that your love,
your love, changes everything.

In this new year, may your heart be so opened, so set on fire, that your love, YOUR LOVE changes everything,

Lisa