Love is such an enormous part of what makes our human life feel "worth living." Seems to me there is really nothing more complex or embedded in our lives. Our culture attaches all manner of behaviors and assumptions to ideas of love, and has historically, and our personalities and characters further embellish our understandings and behaviors. Rather than analyzing all of this, I am learning to approach love as part of my yoga practice, opening myself to possibilities, releasing judgmental mind, strengthening and stretching that which is already part of me, noticing the roller coaster and my fistful of tickets.
The truth of love is undeniable, as reading an ancient fragment of poetry expressing love lost can bring a modern person to tears, or the birth of a mythically beloved child can open the hearts of total strangers.
This day after Christmas reverberates with emotional markers for me. My youngest son was born in the morning on this day in 1990, and five years ago (2004) there was a catastrophic tsunami that wiped out entire villages across the world. Both still shake my heart.
This morning, George Harrison's song "Oh My Love" struck a very deep chord with me. Hearing or reading the simple words seems to bring forth the open spaces and possibilities of beginner's mind. It describes the outward movement of our defining edges, the softening of defenses and attendant discovery of our multi-faceted way of being, and the deep release of the individual into the eternal winds.
On this day, I encourage you to feel the intense, simple, and universal nature of your heart, opening fully to joy and sorrow. Rather than circumscribing your structure, like a building, shutting your doors and windows against the cold of winter, as if you could contain the heat of your heart, saving it for some future moment, or protecting its past performance. Soften, melt and breathe into the whole experience of this moment, like a courageous beginner open to love in all its ways of being.
Oh my love, by George Harrison
Oh my love
For the first time in my life
My eyes are wide open
Oh my lover
For the first time in my life
My eyes can see
I see the wind
Oh I see the trees
Everything is clear in the world
I see the clouds
Oh I see the sky
Everything is clearer in our world
Oh my love
For the first time in my life
My mind is wide open
Oh my lover
For the first time in my life
My mind can feel
I feel the sorrow
Oh I feel the dreams
Everything is clearer in my heart
I feel life
Oh I feel love
Everything is clearer in our world
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