“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
— Dalai Lama
|
|
Our hearts are still full as we carry the love and connection from our incredible Winter Wellness Retreat with us. And this weekend, as Valentine’s Day arrives, we are reminded once again of the power of love.
Valentine’s Day often centers on romantic love — flowers, dinners, and sweet gestures. And romantic love is beautiful. But love is so much more than that.
Love is many things. It is patience in a difficult conversation. It is compassion when someone is struggling. It is forgiveness when it would be easier to harden the heart. It is generosity. It is tenderness toward ourselves. It is the small, quiet gestures of kindness that ripple outward in ways we may never see.
Love is not just a feeling we fall into. It is a quality we cultivate. It is a practice — especially when forces in the world feel like barriers to it. It is a willingness to move through life with an open heart. It is the intention to place our energy and attention on kindness, beauty, compassion, and care.
It is also important to remember that what we seek is what we already are. We are love. Sometimes the hardest part of finding our way is recognizing what stands in our way. As the 13th-century Sufi mystic Rumi wrote, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
The Buddha offered similar guidance in his Eightfold Path to peace. He taught the practice of Wise Effort — a careful and balanced use of our energy to cultivate wholesome qualities that lead to wellbeing and human flourishing. Through mindful awareness and intention, we begin to see that we have the power to direct our energy toward what nourishes us and what brings greater peace into our lives and into the world.
Jack Kornfield often reminds us that we can live our lives as if they are a garden. A garden requires attention. We need to know what to weed and what to water.
Ease, steadiness, calm, loving-kindness, and compassion are seeds already within us. And so are impatience, resentment, judgment, and fear. Wise Effort is not about eliminating the unwholesome qualities — they are part of being human. It is about tending our inner garden with care. Choosing what to nourish. Choosing where to place our attention. Learning, over time, what leads to love and peace — and trusting the process.
This is not always easy in a world that can feel noisy, chaotic, and challenging. That is why another essential quality to cultivate is patience. Patience with the world. Patience with others. Patience with ourselves. As Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.”
So let this Valentine’s Day be an invitation to pause and gently ask yourself:
- What am I growing in my heart?
- What am I feeding with my energy and attention?
- What am I offering the world?
- Where could I practice more patience?
- Can I trust the process as I go?
The heart has an endless capacity to love. That capacity is already in you. And the world needs your love. Give it generously.
This is how we water the garden. Love is not something we wait to receive. It is something we practice, every single day.
Cheryl & Stephanie
