Tag Archives: love

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Change and Love to Stimulate Creativity


Needlework by Barbara Mattio

Creativity is like a plant in that it needs to be fertilized and watered. It needs quite a bit of attention and stimulation for it to flow out of your minds and heart and soul. All of life is in a constant state of change and often I, for one, have not been comfortable with that. We need to look at change as opportunity. It is amazing that I am able to say this with a straight face, but I am and the changes in life stimulate the flow of cosmic consciousness and the flow of creativity.

Another essential aspect of creativity is love. You must love yourself and those in your community. Darkness will hide your artistic voice. You need to love the people who agree with you as well as those who do not. A singer exercises their voice. To exercise the love aspect of your being will encourage your artistic voice.

Look at your work as an uphill climb and move gradually and steadily toward the summit. It is like a tiny stream in a landscape. If the stream is flowing, it can change the topography.

You can arrive at artistic purity, not today or tomorrow perhaps, but the more your creativity flows and the more your art flows out of your being, the closer you will become to the purity. So breathe. This doesn’t happen overnight, but then teachers don’t function in a classroom overnight. A construction site doesn’t turn into a skyscraper overnight either. Keep breathing and allowing change and believe in your self. You will shine!

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Olympic Hopes


Last night, like many millions of people in the world, I watched the Opening Olympic ceremonies. They were beautiful and magical. Country after country marching represented by their best athletes. Their faces shining and happy smiles for all. The traditional clothes were so colorful and beautiful and each person walking in those ceremonies was lit with beauty from within. I also remembered past Olympic tragedies. I realized that we, the human beings on this planet have kept the spirit of the games alive since the Greek empire. Every 4 years, the torch is lit with pride and accomplishment. This is what human life should be, the colorful parade of shining faces and the millions who watch by television, now-a-days. The pride to be human in this world and the pride for country, and the pride and good wishes for the athletes who are competing from other countries. Life is meant to be this exilharating and peaceful experience.

Why can’t it last? What happens to us after the closing ceremonies? Do we lose our love for our fellow human beings? Why do we go into the rut of every one out for themselves?

During the Olympics, we put aside differences and while still competing against each other, it is all about being the best we can be. Why do we stop that? I believe that if the Olympics can continue to inspire the world and so many millions of people, then we are capable of carrying these experiences on into the lives of all people in every country. Little, big, rich, poor, we are capable of loving and helping each other We are capable of compassion and turning aside from what does not compliment these ideals. To me the Olympics demonstrate that we are capable of living together in peace, harmony, love and compassion. So I still have hope for us. I still believe that despite what we hear all the time on the news, we can be better people. In the news, “it leads if it bleeds.” Well, peace doesn’t bleed and we don’t hear enough about the wonderful people who live, struggle and love others more than they love themselves. So my heart and mind are with the athletes from every fantastic country on this fantastic planet. We can make peace work.

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No Greater Love


One of my heroines is Mother Teresa. This soul is what I always wanted to be. I didn’t succeed, but I am continuing to help the world however I can. I am committed to do this for the rest of my life. Life requires commitment to ideals, commitment to love and acceptance. Life requires that we love and accept others without limitation. Now, I know there are some that would say, she has never seen the rough parts of life. But I have, in person and close up. The world isn’t beautiful. You have to look for the beauty in people and all around you. God is everywhere and that includes within us. So follow the creative voice within and create the beauty you need to thrive in this experience. This plane of existence.

“Love each other as God loves each one of you, with an intense and particular love. Be kind to each other; it is better to commit faults with gentleness than to work miracles with unkindness.”
—-Mother Tesesa

Rumi talks about the ecstatic love of God. He speaks of the interconnectedness of all sentient beings.

“One part of the Whole is not separate from the other parts. The beauty of all flowers is part of the rose’s beauty. The coo of the turtledove is part of the nightingale’s song.”  —–Rumi

Our works of love and charity come from our overflow of our love of God from within. Charity is like a living flame. The drier the fuel, the livelier the flame. Showing gratitude for everything in your life, whether a little thing or an abundance, needs to be done with joy. A heart burning with love produces a joyful heart. Joy is strength. Joy is always hard and it isn’t just temperament. We need to work to acquire it and make it grow in our hearts. We may not always have a lot to give but we can always give the joy that springs from a heart which is in love with God. We need to love without getting tired. A lamp burns with the continuous flow of drops within the lamp. Compassion and a loving heart are the most important things we can cultivate and we will never run out. We were chosen for this incarnation for a purpose, we aren’t just a number. So explore life, embrace it with passion and find what God has for you.

Photo by Barbara Mattio, Livingston, TX.

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A Promise


“A promise is beauty kept secure
The exquisiteness of knowing what is to come
The soft laugh that rumble through the rooms
Caress each wall hiding the thoughts of departure
Covering it with Check In instead of Check Out
The guitars streaming through
the tightened brains of thinkers whose creations
Just won’t speak of a world no one but they can imagine
Running through the darkness where fire burns deep
lighting our smiles
Tickling our hearts
Dancing to songs sung by beauty
Relaxing our minds conquered by stress
Admiration flows deep, like creaking beds
Shh, don’t wake everyone up
“Breakfast time!”
Whoever is so eager, needs
to write to express their thoughts
To allow their words on paper to become freedom
To listen to our leaders say,
“Wanna feel like you belong? Join a gang.”
They too laugh, moving the grass like wind.
——Lashaun Noel

This poem was written at Rena’s Promise International Creative Writing Camp, where the mission is to further the vision of Holocaust survivor
Rena Kornreich Gelissen to create a more ecumenical world unhindered by prejudice, racism or hatred by bring young people together from all walks of life and providing them a place to develop the cultural voices of Generation NEXT.

Racism, hatred, differences, religion, judging others, oppression are what we fight today in our world. We also fought it during the Holocaust. We fought it in Africa and Yugoslavia. Violence and war are what turn our worlds dark with fear and an obsession with power. It makes our world dark with its negative emotions. The pain we humans cause each other is overwhelming.

The answer is light and love and this is what is happening in pockets around the world. The scars remain, but we can’t stop adding our light to the world. For those Holocaust survivors who carry the Nazi numbers tattooed to their arms the dark never completely recedes, but we can light the love which will keep it pushed back so they know they are loved and their courage recognized.

hatred, violence, rape are happening now, 2012 and we must protect those who are oppressed and frightened. We must protect the vulnerable and weak. As human beings, we have the power to stop the darkness and bring light and love into the world of those who suffer. 
It is a beginning. Each of us, letting the love in our hearts and souls to remove the darkness.

I dedicate this blog to all those who have suffered oppression. I promise I will try every day to bring light and love into the world’s dark areas.

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The Blessing of Those Who Died


Once again, we have tragedy due to violence. I feel so much love for those who are the victims. 

So I want to bless them today and for eternity. I am not dealing with anything but love and blessing here.

” Heal their Spirits, Lord, from all the wounds that their hearts have suffered through this lifetime.of limitation.”

 

“Death is the night after which the day begins.

It is death which dies, not life.

The life everlasting is hidden in the heart of death.”

                                                —Hazrat Inayat Khan

I can’t imagine how the families and friends feel at this moment, but I know that The One picked these souls up with love to take them home. I celebrate their lives and the joy, happiness and love which they shared with others during their short lives. May the goodness and love of their lives be an inspiration to the entire country. May the bright energy of their lives continue to teach others about love.

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The Road of Wisdom


I have been thinking about the words of wisdom which many people have shared with the world over the generations. So many voices have spoken out with truth about humanity, spirituality and cultural issues such as racism, peace and sexism.

Many of these people are dead and often not the type of person you would expect to hear words of wisdom. Dr. Martin Luther King was a man from whom we expected wise thinking. King Solomon was also a man gifted with the ability to be wise.

There have been others who have an unexpected wisdom. Not great religious leaders, not academics, or even politicians. Some of the wisest thoughts I have heard came from left field. The rock star, John Lennon, the comedian, George Carlin, and Reggae singer, Bob Marley. I understand that this is unexpected but they have spoken out about peace, racism, love, and equality. I am hearing their words more often since they have passed over. So while they were the best in their chosen fields, they have left incredible words which can continue to inspire and motivate us to live the very best way that we can in every moment.

” Who are you to judge the life I live? I am not perfect and I don’t have to be! Before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean.”
—Bob Marley

These words and all of the wisdom which preceded them are so very on target. Not said the way a preacher or a politician would say them but they go to the center of a person’s heart. The perfect bulls-eye for the twenty-first century. We must come to young people today in ways they can respond to and change themselves and our world in the ways that are needed.

We have one world, one life and one destiny and it is shared by the 7 billion + human beings on this planet. We have to hear and we have to share the wisdom that will save the world.
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The Heart of the Divine


The heart is a receptacle on earth of the divine Spirit. When it holds the divine spirit it soars heavenward. The divine spark which is reflected in the human heart is love.

We need to seek God in the heart of mankind. When we recognize the divine in everyone, we have taken the first step. We also need to be considerate to everyone with our thoughts, actions, and speech.

As you meditate, and visit the inner landscapes, recognize in your own feeling the feeling of God. Know that every impulse of love that rises in your heart is a divine direction from God. This love is the divine spark in your heart which will ignite a flame to rise to illuminate your life’s path.

The living thing in the heart is love. It may show itself as kindness, friendship, sympathy, tolerance or forgiveness.

True spirituality lies in opening the heart, in widening the outlook, and in living your own spiritual path. Every sentient being on earth loves life above all else. The smallest insect, whose life lasts only an instant, tries to escape any danger in order to live a moment longer.

So if we now look at the world and the wars and hatred, bigotry and violence, we have to understand that the heart of humankind is created to be filled with the loving ecstasy of Divinity. Everyone has the same loving connection to Divine love within the heart.

“Because of the beloved my heart is happy,
my soul illuminated.
From the beloved’s greenery hundreds of
blessed rivers are flowing to the rose gardens.

In order to enter into your rose
garden,
the soul makes peace with the thorns.

Choose love. Choose love.
Without this beautiful love,
life is nothing but a burden.”
—-Rumi

photo by Barbara Mattio

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The Mysticism of the Heart


There is a difference between religion and spirituality. Spirituality exists without a structure of dogma or fear.

To appreciate a painting you have to stand in the place of the artist. Assumptions can be made, but without entry to the artist’s heart, we can not completely understand what the artist intended.

Eastern poets and gurus or murshids, understand that ecstasy is being sensitive to the condition of the spirit of the universe. Something like placing one’s hand on the pulse of God. Thoughts that spring from a soul on fire, fill the soul with joy, love, and thrilling inspiration. The awakening; of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity in man, is our inheritance of the Divine immense perfection.

” When a glimpse of Our image is caught in man (or woman) when heaven and earth are sought in man,then what is there in the world that is not in man? If one only explores him, there is a lot in man.”

“I have loved in life and I have been loved. I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar, and have been raised above life’s joy and sorrow.

My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it. My heart has been rent and joined again; My heart had been broken and again made whole;

My heart has been wounded and healed again;

A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet. I went through hell and saw there love’s raging fire, and I entered heaven illuminated with the light of love.

I wept in love and made all weep with me;

I mourned in love and pierced the hearts of men;

And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks, the rocks burst forth as volcanoes.

The whole world sank in the flood caused by my one tear;

With my deep sigh the earth trembled, and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved, I shook the throne of God in heaven.

I bowed my head low in humility, and on my knees I begged of love,

‘Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret.’ She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth, and spoke softly in my ear,

My dear one, thou thyself art love, art lover, and thyself art the beloved whom thou hast adored.”

—- Hazrat Inayat Khan

Photo by Barbara Mattio

Photo by Barbara Mattio

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A Woman Ahead of Her Time


Sometimes we think we have to belong to an established family to make a real difference in the world. Some women feel they need a PHD to prove they are good enough. I have a story here of a woman, Anne Bradstreet who came to America in 1630 aboard the first Puritan ship to arrive here in the colonies. Anne was a married woman who had begun writing early in her life despite the fact that she had eight children.

Being a published woman in the 1600’s Puritan community was not something which made her popular with some others in the community. Her literary endeavors were off-putting to some of her peers. They questioned her place and the propriety of a woman writing her thoughts and observations.

Anne wrote about the hardships of women in the New World, as well as the difficulties in her own life looking for recognition and acceptance in the American colonies at that time. I think many were similar to what we have faced since then as American women. She also wrote many mystical poems about her own religious beliefs.

Anne’s poetry was published in 1650, when her book “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up” went into print. She also wrote about the raising of her eight children and subjects of import at the time. Many of her poems are gentle, such as her poem to her husband:

“If ever two were one, then surely we,
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold
Or all of the riches that the East doth hold/
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.”

Anne was influenced by the work of Edmund Spencer and Philip Sidney. One of her descendants was Oliver Wendell Holmes. She is considered America’s first English-language poet.

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I Am A Child Of the Universe


This is an 800 year old tree in France. At some time it was struck by lightening and the amazing hollowed out area was the result. It has made an outstanding church.

I have been aware of a large increase in violence and mean-spirited debating lately. Everyone is right and everyone else is wrong. Because I consider myself a child of the Universe, I find this to be distressing. What does it mean to be a child of this universe we live in? To me it means that I acknowledge the right of someone to disagree with me and to express it. It means that I frequently to within to the inner landscape to experience the love of Divinity. I honor the Divinity within myself and others. I don’t “have the way” and I do not think your way is wrong.

My prayer for today is: “To raise us above the distinctions and differences which divide us”.

The Fundamental Truth
——Marge Piercy

“The Christian right, Islamic Jihad,
the Jewish Right Bank settlers bringing
the Messiah down, the Japanese sects
who worship by bombing subways,
they all hate each other.
but more they hate the mundane,
ordinary people who love living
more than dying in radiant glory,
who shuffle and sigh and bake bread.

They need a planet of their own,
perhaps even a barren moon
with artificial atmosphere,
where they will surely be nearer
to their gods and their fiercest
enemies, where they can kill
to their heart’s peace
kill to the last standing man
and leave the rest of us be.

Not mystics to whom the holy
comes in the core of struggle
in a shimmer of blinding quiet,
not scholars haggling out the inner
meaning of gnarly ancient sentences.
No, the holy comes to these zealots
as license to kill, for self-doubt
and humility have dried like mud
under their marching feet.

They have far more in common
with each other, these braggarts
of hatred, the iron hearted
in whose ear a voice spoke
once and left them deaf.
Their faith is founded on death
of others, and everyone is other
to them, whose Torah is splattered
in letters of blood.”

So I am constantly turning from hatred to love and hoping that as love shines from my heart, others will notice and feel peace.

“It is good to love many things,
for therein lies the true strength,
and whosoever loves much
and performs much,
and can accomplish much,
and what is done in love
is well done”!
—-Vincent Van Gogh