September 2020: Leading with an Open Heart

The world keeps turning, seasons change, and the steadiness of the cycles can give us comfort.  It is a time of transitions, with new coolness in the air, later morning light allowing some of us to sleep a bit longer in the morning, the beautiful greens turning to vibrant reds and yellows.  In the same breath, we have been rocked to the core by a global pandemic bringing fear and isolation and, unfortunately, instead of bringing us together to collectively respond, people are taking sides politically.  Long-suffered racial and social injustices are now brought more forcibly to light.  Raging wildfires and unusual hurricanes and storms loudly declare that our natural order is changing.  How do you find steadiness and calm in an unsettling world?

Environmental leaders are exploring and finding positive approaches to these major problems.  I recently listened to environmentalist Katherine Wilkerson, involved in the Drawdown Project and author of the book All We Can Save, speak as part of the Wellbeing Series at the University of Minnesota’s Bakken Center.  She argues that healing our earth will heal our culture.  She believes that the “most powerful cultural influences come from the place of love and joy.” 

Recently I have been exploring the concept of love with a spiritual study group, a Sadhana.  I was particularly interested in investigating the question, “How does love heal?”  Research shows that those in loving relationships heal faster and have better outcomes when faced with difficult medical issues.  “Love” means being fully present to the moment, whatever might arise.  “Love” is listening deeply to the one you love, the person who needs healing, the demands for justice that need to be acted upon.  “Love” is compassion without judgment both for one’s self and for others.  Recently a client explained that he felt a connection between us and that was why he was telling me more about his medical challenges.  I was honored, as that is what healing is all about … connection.  I’m exhausted at the end of a clinic day and yes, my work as a physical therapist keeps me in constant motion, but it is more the mental focus, the listening, my expression of love, that I intend to bring to the healing process with everyone I work with.  How do you express your love?  How do you bring healing to your world, big or small?  How can you/we bring love and joy to bear upon the major changes that our world and society are calling for?

Parting thought

Love will remind us that we are a part of life—that we belong to each other and to this living, suffering planet. We just need to say “yes” to this mystery within our own hearts, to open to the link of love that unites us all, that is woven into the web of life. Only from this place of living oneness can we support each other in this present crisis and then walk into a future that recognizes, and feels, the sacred nature of all that exists, and so help to bring our world back into balance.  
- Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
 

Open your heart and share your love with the world, great and small, and feel the power of connection.  

With an open heart,
Marnie