31 Mar
31Mar

What do You Love? 

An excerpt from a Sunday talk at Unity Church of Rochester NY

 I am so grateful to be here with you today; and speak about this topic of WHAT DO WE LOVE? HERE ARE SOME OF THE WAYS, That Wayne Mueller reflected on this topic in How Then shall We Live “When we do what we love again and again our life comes to hold the fragrance of that thing” “When we hold something in our hands day after day our hands conform to the shape of what we have held”“ all that we are is a result of what we have loved” “ what we love draws us forward and shapes our destiny” first a story to illustrate these ideas:  WHEN our son, Christopher, was about 14 months old we were going to his favorite Restaurant which was Bob Evans.     Nat was going ahead to get the table while I was getting Christopher out of the car. As we approached the door, I noticed two people standing in a weird way next to the door.  And then I realized that a very large man was hitting a much smaller woman. I surprised myself with my response.  I called Nat back to me and I handed Christopher to him, and without a word to Nat, I walked up to these two people, and I told the man to stop it right now.  He was sort of taken aback and he was acting like he was going to hit me.  I stepped back AND then I told him again to leave her alone.  Nat is standing at the door with Christopher and I said  Please  get the manager and have him call 911 and I continued to  stand by this man and woman.  >>> the manager came out and the man left, and the woman called a friend to come pick her up, thanking me as she left. I was actually really shocked at myself. In my life I was actually quite shy and had trouble even saying my name in a group of three or four before I went to ministerial school, LET ALONE TAKING ACTION LIKE THIS  what this was truly about is this:   when I became Christopher’s mother everything changed for me.  I was in so much awe about being the mother of this precious baby that it opened up the mother archetype in me so deeply that  IT CHANGED EVERYTHING OR ACTUALLY, I BECAME MORE OF MY TRUE SELF.  Wayne Mueller goes on to say that when we love something: “We feel the truth of it and we touch it’s deeper natureand we are changed by this experience of love So what is love? Love is complete acceptance: When we accept  someone exactly as they are, without any belief that they aren’t good enough, without any belief that they would be “better” if they were different, this is love.  and as it says in the Bible:  “for where your treasure is there will your heart be also”.    When we know where our treasure is, when we know what is sacred to us, we are filled with a clarity of purpose and a breathtaking capacity to act on what we believe.  Our treasure is what has us come alive, It is not something we have to think about, it just is. People often tell me that when they see a horse, they think of me.. Horses make me come alive; So we each must notice what makes us COME ALIVE AND SEEK TO MAKE TIME FOR THAT IN OUR LIVES. When we make time for what makes us come alive, everything changes. We must  not put these things off. If you feel alive when hiking in the woods, then that must be a spiritual practice. If you feel alive when reading certain spiritual books, then you must make time for that. If you feel alive when gardening, or swimming, or cooking, or writing a book, then it is imperative to devote some time every week to these things.  ********************************************  A GREAT way to know what we love   is to do a values exercise  There are a lot of values exercise  If you google:  “values exercise”,  you can find one. . But once we truly know what our values are, we can then begin to align our actions in life according to our values  Our values point to what we truly love the most! Re: Values, most people well say, “well, I know what my values are”.  But I might suggest looking deeper. When I was becoming a Spiritual Intelligence Coach with Deep Change, an organization let by Cindy Wigglesworth    Cindy asked me if I had my values in line?  I said, “well yes” but with some hesitation.  She asked me: “do you really?”   I said “Well maybe not as clear as what I would like”, and she said to get this done immediately as part of the requirement to be a coach with her organization.    Wayne Mueller says we need to have the courage to stand by what we love; we need the courage to stand by our values.    Truly it does take courage to name and follow what we love!    It takes courage to follow the teachings of our heart! Wayne Mueller tells a story about a man  that was dealing with a lot of fear in his body.   The man said it was always there but as Wayne worked with the man, Wayne asked him if there was a time that he did not experience his fear. The man said, the only time he did not experience the fear, was when he felt love  for his daughter and for when he used  his hands when he was building furniture  This man went on to notice that the things that he loved helped him cast out this fear more perfectly than anything else.   This reminds me of a system of thought that was developed about 25 years ago called HEART MATH Heart Math has become very popular in Unity Circles.     The Idea behind Heart Math is this:  when we seek to connect with our Heart, we are able to access a level of deep inner knowing, that of our heart’s intuitive guidance. The Heart Math institute tells us this: By Tuning into your heart’s wisdom a profound shift occurs that helps us approach difficult  situations with  emotional balance, compassion,  and personal confidence . (repeat) Here are the steps To use to solve any problem by connecting with the wisdom in our heart or by using Heart- Math. 

  • go to your heart and recall some experience of love - either love that you gave or love that you received. Try to remember the experience in as vivid detail as you can. As you tune in, it can also be a 4-legged child or something you love in nature.

  • Then from this place of connecting to your Heart’s wisdom, ask your heart what you need to know to deal with a problem or challenge.


 We will use these steps today in our meditation. Let us close our outer eyes now and allow the focus of our attention to rest in our heart center. In the heart is perfect love All of creation has a center of perfect love Let us breathe to this place within…….. And as you do, bring to mind An experience of perfect love This experience can be- either love that you gave or love that you received. It can be with a person or a 4-legged or even an experience in nature. Your heart will tell you Allow an awareness of what this we like. Allow details of this experience to come to mind. PAWS!! Breathe to this experience. If this love had a color, what color would it be…….. If this love had a name, what would it be. Imagine this love to flow from your heart into every cell in your body…. Each cell receives this, and shares it with the cells around it. Let us abide in the silence for a moment and simply be with this love PAWS….. And while still abiding in  your heart  NOW allow something that  causes concern to come to mind As you bring this concern to mind, See it from the vantage point of the heart……. The wisdom, the intuitive guidance in the heart will guide us at to what our next step is in the resolution of this concern   See the concern with heart eyes and heart vision. See or feel what the next step is……..all we ever need do is take our next step MAYBE our next step is  just a step of willingness to see anew, to see from the Heart. But for now, right now, allow this love to flow into you again, Returning the focus of our attention back to ourselves. Breathe And let us know that as each of us abides in this now We are part of a Divine force field of love And it goes before us, and all around us And it blesses those we encounter today Perfect love casts out fear Perfect love transforms everything unlike itself….. And for this let us be grateful Thank you God,



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