My heart hurts deeply as we've witnessed yet another senseless act of racism and violence this past week. As I've been reflecting and having conversations around racism and the events which have unfolded around the country the word reverence comes to mind.
Do you live your life with reverence? Reverence recognizes and honors the presence of the sacred in everyone and everything. It's a feeling of profound awe, deep respect and love for all that is. Reverence is a spiritual practice.
Do you believe that we are ALL children of God, of one Source, that we are in essence one? I invite you to pause and give that deep consideration. Do you REALLY believe it without hesitation, without any "buts", without any excuses stemmed in fear? Do your daily thoughts, actions and behaviors support this?
Author Gary Zukav states in his book The Seat of the Soul, "We look upon each other as prey to satisfy our emotional and physical needs. We say, 'It's a dog-eat-dog world,' and that to survive in it we must take advantage of others before they take advantage of us. We look upon life as a contest that produces winners and losers, and we feel no restraints upon us when the needs of other people or other groups threaten us."
He goes on to say, "Our behavior and values are so much shaped by perceptions that lack reverence that we do not know what it is like to be reverent. When we curse a competitor or strive to disempower another person, we absent ourselves from reverence. When we work to take instead of to give, we labor without reverence. When we strive for safety at the expense of another person's safety, we deprive ourselves of the protection of reverence. When we judge one person as superior and another as inferior we depart from reverence. When we judge ourselves, we do the same thing. Business, politics, education, sex, raising families, and personal interactions without reverence all produce the same result: human beings using other human beings."
I could keep typing quotes from this chapter in his book because it is so important to me especially right now. In my opinion our world needs more reverence. Yes, we most definitely need more love, less hate and less divisiveness, systemic changes and that all starts with reverence. As a society we have bought into the model of fear hook line and sinker. We operate from a place of fear and scarcity, that it's a dog-eat-dog world to justify our appalling behavior toward each other and toward the earth.
The practice of reverence is missing in many of our lives. People are labeled, dehumanized, and viciously attacked both verbally and physically. It lacks reverence. It hurts my heart deeply and it probably hurts yours too.
I believe we should each be pausing and reflecting on whether we are practicing reverence for our fellow humankind, for our earth and all the creatures that inhabit it, and what action we can each take to practice reverence. If we are reverent, we would not harm life. The reverent person is a spiritual person who sees Divinity in all forms of life and honors it. Challenging ourselves and asking...What we can do to actively practice reverence?
Marianne Williamson, one of my favorite authors, says "We need reverence and devotion toward each other, toward the children of the world, and toward the planet itself. We need reconciliation with the God of our understanding, and radical forgiveness towards each other. We need to look at ourselves and ask how we can do better, devote ourselves to our country and to our children’s children, and rise up from the ashes of our self-pre-occupation. We need desperately to evolve from “me” to “we” now. Only then will our nation rise: when we rise first."
I'm sending out lots of love, light, peace, healing and reverent energy to you and to the world. Be brave. Be empathetic. Listen deeply. Practice reverence.
Do you live your life with reverence? Reverence recognizes and honors the presence of the sacred in everyone and everything. It's a feeling of profound awe, deep respect and love for all that is. Reverence is a spiritual practice.
Do you believe that we are ALL children of God, of one Source, that we are in essence one? I invite you to pause and give that deep consideration. Do you REALLY believe it without hesitation, without any "buts", without any excuses stemmed in fear? Do your daily thoughts, actions and behaviors support this?
Author Gary Zukav states in his book The Seat of the Soul, "We look upon each other as prey to satisfy our emotional and physical needs. We say, 'It's a dog-eat-dog world,' and that to survive in it we must take advantage of others before they take advantage of us. We look upon life as a contest that produces winners and losers, and we feel no restraints upon us when the needs of other people or other groups threaten us."
He goes on to say, "Our behavior and values are so much shaped by perceptions that lack reverence that we do not know what it is like to be reverent. When we curse a competitor or strive to disempower another person, we absent ourselves from reverence. When we work to take instead of to give, we labor without reverence. When we strive for safety at the expense of another person's safety, we deprive ourselves of the protection of reverence. When we judge one person as superior and another as inferior we depart from reverence. When we judge ourselves, we do the same thing. Business, politics, education, sex, raising families, and personal interactions without reverence all produce the same result: human beings using other human beings."
I could keep typing quotes from this chapter in his book because it is so important to me especially right now. In my opinion our world needs more reverence. Yes, we most definitely need more love, less hate and less divisiveness, systemic changes and that all starts with reverence. As a society we have bought into the model of fear hook line and sinker. We operate from a place of fear and scarcity, that it's a dog-eat-dog world to justify our appalling behavior toward each other and toward the earth.
The practice of reverence is missing in many of our lives. People are labeled, dehumanized, and viciously attacked both verbally and physically. It lacks reverence. It hurts my heart deeply and it probably hurts yours too.
I believe we should each be pausing and reflecting on whether we are practicing reverence for our fellow humankind, for our earth and all the creatures that inhabit it, and what action we can each take to practice reverence. If we are reverent, we would not harm life. The reverent person is a spiritual person who sees Divinity in all forms of life and honors it. Challenging ourselves and asking...What we can do to actively practice reverence?
Marianne Williamson, one of my favorite authors, says "We need reverence and devotion toward each other, toward the children of the world, and toward the planet itself. We need reconciliation with the God of our understanding, and radical forgiveness towards each other. We need to look at ourselves and ask how we can do better, devote ourselves to our country and to our children’s children, and rise up from the ashes of our self-pre-occupation. We need desperately to evolve from “me” to “we” now. Only then will our nation rise: when we rise first."
I'm sending out lots of love, light, peace, healing and reverent energy to you and to the world. Be brave. Be empathetic. Listen deeply. Practice reverence.
RSS Feed
