On Love and Bravery

...Two of the most important ideas around, I think-- Love and Bravery. 

I'm not really sure there's any other human traits that really matter but these two... and by bravery, I mean, the ability to do not what is difficult for others, but the ability to demand in oneself the growth necessary to make easy what used to be difficult for the self.  To stand back up with we fall down, that kind of thing. 

True love and bravery-- they're not easy, and in these topsy turvy days, they're what's needed. 

How often do we, as humans, choose the easy thing?  And how often is the easy thing NOT the loving thing to do?  Loving another as we love our-self requires both true love of the other, and true love of the self... Isn't it easier, for example, to strike out at someone who challenges us than to accept the challenge, or seriously consider the opinion?  And isn't it sometimes easier to accept shabby love from another than to demand true love from everyone? 

Every individual in a body is also the universe, isn't how we treat the people in our lives indicative of our relationship with the universe itself?  And isn't the treatment we accept of ourselves, from others, indicative too of our relationship with the universe? 

Love and bravery... what else is there?  For all seeking "enlightenment" (a much overused word, it seems), are these not the two most important concepts there are?  For there is no enlightenment without the courage to accept the stillness... and to accept ourselves, AS WE ARE, as an intrinsic part of the divine light. 

And there is no enlightenment where love for our brothers, mothers, sisters, fathers, friends relatives and lovers are not purely and beautifully manifest. 

Demand love... give love.  Demand bravery... be brave.  This is how we will change the world... with the bravery to love each-other, and live the love we have for each-other, always. 

If we love the earth, and we do nothing to help her in these hours where the oceans are ravaged-- are we not showing we love our ego and comfort more?  It gets me thinking sometimes...

Not that I think it's easy, always, living love, living courage.  If it were easy, well, it wouldn't be courage... but I think there WAS a time when it was easier.  Before self-interest and cowardice became more or less acceptable standards of behavior. 

Think I'm being harsh?  Perhaps... but why is so much wealth in the hands of so few?  And how do those few justify to themselves holding on to levels of wealth that are in essence redundant, in that one can only spend so much money, while so many have no money to spend on things like food, water, and shelter? 

Why do so many people accept romantic and familial relationships that hurt, when love never does?

Me, I believe that what's needed now is people walking the walk.  So that's what I'm doing-- living out on a limb, trying to help my earth any way I can.  If I didn't believe, I'd be terrified, for this limb couldn't possibly hold my weight.  And yet, I count on the universe to hold me up. 

I'm laying Buddhist palms everywhere I can... even that, I thought would be easy for me-- well, on one occasion, the palm I laid came back to knock me nearly senseless-- forcing me, once again, to find the bravery to live outside of comfort.  It's funny how things happen sometimes, you can think you have things figured out, no sweat, and then the universe comes along and tells you you need to grow, and be braver than you had been before-- even if you thought you were as brave as you could be.  

I guess that in an ever-evolving cosmos, we must have the love and bravery to ever-evolve also.   And I think we must have the bravery to demand of or family, friends and lovers true love and bravery as well...

To demand of others the same love and bravery we give to them.  To accept no less, and if we are receiving less, to step, once more, out into the abyss, so we attract the love and courage we need-- because we are the experience of our lives, and our relationships with others are our relationships with the universe itself.  Not in judgment of those who give less, but in affirmation of love itself.  To move on, to stay, to love, to drop our fears like stones into a pond... to feel the ripples of the cosmos, and know the cosmos loves us, and all we desire is out there, exists, and is whole and beautiful-- but we must live it, and in living it, sometimes seek it, and in seeking it, sometimes we must do the hardest things... we must leave the comfort and seek the rickety limbs of dubious-looking trees... when we are guided, when our hearts say leap, we must leap. 

those who will find the light, the love, the joy-- it's they who will leap. 
Accept no less from you or me or anyone, my friends.  Accept no less.