What is Love?

I am writing this because it seems this is a question that is still being asked by others, even though they don't really know they are asking it.  Defining love is not something that is easy to do, but describing what it is not is much easier to do.

Once when walking in the park with my first dog Freedom a man was sitting on a bench asking his small white dog to come to him.  His commands to the little dog were getting louder and more insistent and the little dog was more and more hesitant to obey....crouching low on the ground, slowly moving forward.  He wanted to please his owner, but the tone of the owners voice was clearly one in which he was not pleased.

Eventually the dog got close enough for the owner to grab him and then he started hitting him.  I yelled - anger and outrage were my obvious response - but in walking away I had to ask myself, why come closer when all you are going to do is get hit?

In my human relationships something similar has happened.  I haven't been hit, but I have been asked to offer my friendship and love, but as I try and get closer I get hit - mostly with judgment and criticism, but it feels like an emotional slap all the same.

This is something we humans just don't seem to get - I'm as guilty as the rest.  So what is love?  Surely it can't hurt because I think that defies the entire purpose of what love it!  But why try and get close to that which only wants to change you, judge you, and point out what is wrong with you?

Ironically, those who have tried to tell me I push away love are the same people who are doing the pushing.  They say they want closeness, but yet what they give doesn't feel very good when you do get close - is it really any surprise I want to stay away from that?

I'm adding this link to a video of just pictures of dogs and people.  But if you watch it, pay attention to how your FEEL seeing the images.  It doesn't feel like judgment, it feels like what love is supposed to be, a safe place to lay your head down.

They video is here:  http://youtu.be/0B-pm_JZw8Y


Humans have a lot to learn about what love and relationship is really all about.  We need to focus less on the form and getting others to do what we think they need to do and more on just accepting the other as they are - no strings attached.


The Universe and its Creator only respond to what the truth of our intention and vibration is - whether we are focused on a person, a plant, an animal, or a piece of art.  And the big secret as TRUTH is there are not different kinds of love, there is only love and not love.  You get to choose.  I know I have.

What is Your Idea of a Great Day?

Seems no one was facing me when the pics got taken today!

Sunday was just that for me - a great day!  I would have shared all this yesterday, but my internet was out so better late than never!  Why was Sunday good?  Because I had an adventure, I shared it with my new friend Freedom, met a lot of new friends at the Spirit Ranch, and got to know a woman named Gypsy, but goes by Ann,  who has had a lifetime of adventures she shared with me!  Getting lost on the way home was the only part I would say wasn't great!




After driving to Las Cruces, New Mexico to the Spirit Ranch, I started out by meeting one of the therapy horses.

I think this is Star - but he's a mini therapy horse!

After lots of talking and a little video recording....we went to town to eat at a dog friendly eatery where I was so pleased to see Freedom do so well!  She also has a new rescue dog who also did spectacularly well in a public place - though Freedom got quite a bit of chicken that Mattie didn't...bribery works wonders!

Here's the sign outside - awesome food, fabulous owner!

The Ranch and all it's guests will be featured in an upcoming Journal episode - I'm headed back down on Friday to get all the footage I didn't record since we were so busy talking....but am looking forward to sharing this special place with you soon!

Here's Freedom on the porch being very patient - he wouldn't look my way either!

Every day can be a great day if we decide to make it so - so what would make this day great for you?

How Can Art Change the World?

It's a new day and a beautiful one at that!  I wanted to share the rock art I found yesterday and see if the person had added to my message yesterday!  It didn't look like anything new was put on the ground, but the message that I wanted to share is still there!

Where I am living right now is filled with artists and healers.  Most have their creative expressions displayed in workshops, studio's and storefronts.  But the tourist traffic here is tiny and while I don't know the specifics, business is not what it could be from days gone past.

But one of the thoughts that has come to me here is that while art sold commercially to just look at may be losing its market, the idea of creativity and beauty could not be more needed or necessary in our world today!

Creativity and beauty and personal expression has been lost in our everyday lives.  Most of what we buy is no longer hand crafted with love and skill but manufactured in pieces by many living in poverty and slavery to produce it for the industrial world.

As I went to go look this morning to see if there had been any changes in the art on the ground, it also came to me that art is a form of communication - not just from the artist to the one looking or listening - but as a way of interacting.  You start, I add, the next person keeps it going.  What the outcome is not as important as the experience - and that is what life really is, one moment to be experienced at a time.

Not rocket science, but just a thought inspired by rocks on my morning walk!  Have your self a great weekend and see you soon!  This Sunday I'm headed south to a equine therapy center - very excited to show your more soon!

Jill

Do You Want More Love in Your Life?

 

            Well, this post was supposed to start out in a light and loving way, but I have just witnessed something a few minutes ago that is SO upsetting and SO important in how it relates to this question that I've got to start where I am right now and not where I was an hour ago.

            The specifics are not as important as what I'm feeling because I've just been witness to an act of immeasurable assault and violence and all I want to do is cry and throw up.  It takes me back to my own past that I no longer want to be a part of.  It takes me to what kind of future I do want to be a part of.

            The bottom line?  If we want more love in our lives and in our world, it's what we have got to give and be in our lives and our world.  Not just a random thought about how it makes sense and then a return to whatever issue or concern is facing us in the next moment - but a sustained effort we hold all day, every day.

            We have to talk about love.  We have to listen to loving words and watch loving and empowering images.  We have got to feel loving.  We have got to act loving.  We have got to create lovingly.

            We spend an incredible amount of time viewing violence on our televisions, movies, and computers - as I just did that is both real and imagined.  But here is the key - the imagined is as powerful as the real - because they both come from the same place and they both create the same future.

            This young boy who was just violated deserves my love.  But so does the man who just perpetrated the violence against him.  Hate never creates love.  Feeling hate only creates more of the same - hate and all its effects of violence, rage, pain, and suffering.

           

            It is no accident that earlier this morning I was listening to an interview where a man was describing this same event in his life - and then he kept using the word penetration over and over in different contexts, but always that same word.  This is how we create the world around us.  We believe our words and our stories don't matter - but they do. 

            I was not careful in guarding my own thoughts as I listened to him.  I was not purposeful to shift the images he was sharing and to reframe his words in a way that created harmony and love within me and not sadness and suffering.

            Earlier on my walk I came across a rock arrangement someone had done artistically along the path. It was a circle and inside were two stones balancing one upon the other.  I then took some rocks and added three lines within the circle to make it a peace sign.  It lifted my heart as I joined with the person before me in a message of love and peace.  It was cool.  I thought it was fun.  I hoped they would see it and add to it, but even if they didn't they would feel the connection in our shared spirit.

            Everything affects everything.  Be it love or hate.  All forms of life want more love in their lives, but as humans we are lazy and choose just about everything else but love to focus on first.

      Writing this in this moment is my way of breaking the cycle that began this morning - of replacing images of hate with love, feelings of pain with feelings of love, and of letting the past go so that a future I do want can emerge in this moment - not the someday we all hold on to with hope that is unsupported by our actions.

            The Law of Love is that you will receive what you give to your brother and sister.  Give hate and you get hate.  Give Love and you will receive Love - not the romantic illusionary kind, but the real kind that is the true power in this Universe.

How long before strong wind is too strong?

            I'm sitting here writing this right now asking myself that very question.  There's a wind blowing and again, I am not sure how strong a wind can be before it flips my tiny trailer over!  I tried to ask a neighbor this question earlier, but he only wanted to tell me to avoid the wind in the first place….but that isn't the question I was asking.

            I got close to flipping a few months ago - I was dressed and ready to run in the early morning hours as the wind howled and the trailer rocked.  This is not something I enjoyed or really want to repeat!  It is strange to know your home is only as sturdy as the strength of the wind that assaults it.

            I am beginning to feel like we're the three little pigs - the wolf outside is trying to blow my house down!

            I don't have an answer nor much ability to focus on things like writing as I try and decide if I need to move from this spot or just ride it out….life's biggest question never have clear answers or clear consequences….that sucks.

            I hope your Monday is calmer than mine!  I will see you hopefully soon and who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll have my answer, one way or another!

What Side of Fear of Success Do You Stand On?

 

            I'm at that point in my life where I start to hit the wall.  While I have gotten very good at letting go and tearing my life apart, I'm not so good at putting it back together - all the way.  I usually get to this point, where I've got a plan and a clear path to begin the deconstruction again…

            Good ideas and good plans aren't my problem - following them all the way through is my problem.  And as I was contemplating this - yet again - I was also noticing that for my new friend Freedom was the opposite problem.  Every time he's started to get what he wanted, someone outside of his control stepped in to tear it all apart.  This last time it was me that took him from his friend and his home and plopped him in a tiny trailer with a cat and some woman who he didn't ask to know or live with.

            But what is different for us is that I want him to be successful and happy and content in this life.  His fear of success lies in not getting what he really wants.  For me, my fear of success seems to be in getting what I want.  We are both at the same point in our lives with very different long term goals and history of outcomes.  The problem as I see it is I'm in charge of both outcomes and can I be trusted to do the right thing?

            Of course the great irony that is striking me as I sit and write this is that the formula for success for us both is the same…put one foot in front of the other on the path that leads to what you DO want.  For Freedom to be successful in this new life I am offering to him, he needs to let go of his fear of just about everything. 

To help him do just that I need to ask him to face his fears and as Susan Jeffers says, say yes and do it anyways.  Yes Freedom, the trash can is scary but you can walk by it and be okay.  Yes Freedom, that noise was loud, but you can hear it and be okay.  Yes Freedom, the shaking trailer floor is scary but you can stand on it and be okay.  So far, he's doing great.  He's even starting to smile and be happy to see me on our longer walks in the wild.

            On the other side is me saying no to most of the fears I need to face and then just not doing it anyways.  Witness to this fact - no new blogs, video's left undone, and projects left in limbo.  My excuse?  A variety of physical complaints that seemed to have mysteriously cropped up….coincidence, no such thing. 

            Lucky for both me and Freedom is that each day is a new beginning and each moment an opportunity to make a new choice - one that supports the goal of success or defeats it.  Lucky for Freedom my commitment to his success is much, much greater than my own - like most women, we'll commit to others before our selves…oh well…

            Lucky for me, I can't get fired or let go for missing my own deadlines - unless I want to quit and find a new dream.  The thing is, this one is about as good as it gets, so today I decide to get back on the horse so to speak and commit to both me and my new friend Freedom's mutual success - after all, real success is when everyone wins!!! 

Dreaming A New Dream

 

            It's the first day of a new year and I want to share with you a new dream - well sort of a new dream!  All my life I've been drawn to animals because they are easy to be with.  Their companionship is unwavering, their love without condition, and their loyalty without question.  They have literally saved my life more than once.

            As those who have followed my journey this last year know, I've been seeking and searching how to be in this world in a new way.  Animals have always called my name, but as a social worker by trade, people have been my focus for the last 25 years.  Before that it was creativity through film and writing.  The last few years I've tried to pull it all together and what I want to share is how I think I can!

             A few weeks ago I turned on my solar radio that seemed to get only one station in English.  It is a Christian station and I like listening to music honoring God so I thought - cool!  On this day, at this time they were interviewing a woman named Kim Meeder who is an author and owns the Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch.  She was telling the story of a horse named Hero.

            I can't give you the whole story of Hero here, but by the end I was hysterical with tears, moved more than I have been in years, and inspired to do what ever it takes to get past my fears!  I had just been a witness to a woman who was living her truth in the same way I want to live mine - with her whole heart and soul - bravely and without limiting the depth of her love and belief in Love and God. 

            Her telling of Hero's story answered a question in my own mind I'd been asking for a very long time - how can I stop looking at the suffering and see only the truth in animal and human?  Hero answered that question for me - because HE didn't look at his suffering, only at his own will to live and love of life and how that has been a gift of grace and courage to countless others who have listened to his story through his eyes.

            The Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch is a place where horses and children find each other to heal.  The number of stories are too numerous and can be found in the books Kim Meeder and her husband Troy Meeder write - but they are so inspiring and uplifting they are a must read for us all.

            At the ranch there is never any charge to a child.  The ranch is run by the family, staff, and volunteers and everyone who makes donations.  And here is the message I want to share - what could be a more worthy investment of anyone's money, time, or energy than the healing of children and animals?

            In a season where men and women are hurting each other to buy athletic shoes at $100 or more - how did we ever get to a place where the image we want to project to the world is more valuable than the truth we hold in our hearts about our own worth?

            We build the world around us by what we feel within us.  When we feel worthy and loved we create a world that is loving - but when we are fearful and insecure and angry - then we get the world we've got.  And as I always say, you can only ever be a part of the problem or the solution - which will you choose?

            I am not the only one who has been inspired by Kim's words.  Many others have started similar ministries in their own areas.  And that is the point….to be inspired to love and give the love you feel within you in a way that blesses everyone and takes away from no one.

            At the end of the interview Kim talked about a girl of 11 who said it simply - that God was Love.  Love doesn't ask to be called by a specific name or worshipped in a specific way.  Love doesn't ask to be honored with idols or rituals or sacrifices.  Love just wants to be given away because the more love you give, the more love you will have.  This is the truth we are all seeking to find - and it is as simple as it can get.

            So here is my own dream - not to start a ranch myself, but to start sharing with you all what others are doing to rescue, heal, and save animals and humans by honoring the relationship between us both. 

            The world will not change nor be saved by war or attack or money.  It will be only through the power of love that MUST come from within us.  My appreciation and gratitude I want to offer to Kim Meeder for showing me what that looks like in action - her words, her work, and her life.

            While I have never met you I have been inspired and healed by your words and your actions - as have so many others.  This is who each of us are called to be.  We need only begin in our own way each day, with a smile or a prayer or a dollar given to someone who is hungry with our love and not our judgment.