Love Is Stability
When things fall apart, when our expectations of the world feel like a rug pulled out from underneath us, what can we do? Where do we find solid ground to stand on?
It is quite easy to feel as if there is nowhere to stand, as if the insecurity of this time is too overwhelming to learn how to stand up again. None of us have a frame of reference for how to approach this time, and so it is quite natural to feel as if one is in a state of limbo, an in-between space of instability and disconnection.
We must allow ourselves grace for not knowing what to do, and recognize that we stand before an uncharted territory of challenge and change. It is more than okay to admit that we don’t know! There is humility in admitting that we don’t know something, and this humility right now is helpful for allowing us to get creative about approaching the future in a meaningful way.
If we can approach this time as a blank slate and humble ourselves by acknowledging we don’t have all the answers, we can learn deeply from this moment and transform our perspective of what’s possible.
The experience of not knowing has the potential to take us into a space of what Zen Buddhists call “beginners-mind”. It is a state of recognizing that this moment, in its essence, is entirely new to us. A brand new moment comes with the quality of immense potential in terms of teaching us something meaningful. Regardless of whether the moment is challenging, joyful, insecure, or calming, it always offers us something to learn about ourselves. Beginners-mind means openness, curiosity, and genuine interest in what we can learn about life by being in contact with it.
This quality of openness is also something we’re trying to practice here on the farm. Just like everyone else, we don’t have a complete sense of what’s to come, and that uncertainty is as relevant for us as it is for everyone on the planet. In that place of not-knowing, we are simply striving to do the best we can to serve the moment, allowing ourselves to be resilient by being curious about how we can best take care of our communities despite the challenges of this time.
So let’s take a breath, allow ourselves to be okay with not knowing what’s to come, and see if we can use this openness as a way of finding some solid ground as the world continues to change. If we can find the courage to go within this experience of not-knowing and look beyond the instinct to resist, we may yet find a place of inner stability from which we can rest, recover, and return.
At Plenitud PR, what has always carried us through times of challenge is by finding stability in love.
By this, we mean: remembering that there is nothing that love cannot transform and that actions that are rooted in serving the moment with love have the potential to open us up to an experience of resilience, courage, and growth. When love is our foundation, life becomes an active practice of learning more and more about how to serve the world well, no matter what the challenge may be.
Love takes us into this moment, rather than away from it. We learn to dive into life with courage and a commitment to service because we recognize that our actions have a genuine impact on those around us. If our actions are grounded in love, then we have the ability to create a transformative experience for the wellbeing of others.
Serving with love simply recognizes that life matters. That our lives are inherently bound up in the lives of others, and that we have the ability to bring peace and joy into a person’s life regardless of what the circumstances are.
As human beings, we have that responsibility to each other, and it is now more important than ever to live out that responsibility in each moment. Whether that’s through a phone call to your grandparent, donating what you can to a shelter, or cooking a meal for your roommate, loving service becomes an unshakable foundation from which all things become possible. It allows us to recognize the freshness of this moment, the possibility of what we can do when we meet this time, now, with the practice of taking care of life through loving service.
There can be profound stability in this practice, loving service gives us the encouragement to trust the quality of that activity and to continue to seek what is possible. One excellent way of living this out is through remembering how we are supported, in this moment, by others.
Here’s a great practice on remembering from the children’s TV Host Mr. Rogers (skip to minute 1:28 in the video):
The future may be unclear. But we can meet that lack of knowledge with the desire to fill that space with loving actions, actions that, one step at a time, will serve the healing and harmony of all. If we can practice living in this way, the future will belong to those who are taking steps to take care of each other, their families, and their communities. We are seeing this happen all over the world right now. While this is indeed a dark night of the soul for our planet, there are lamps of love being lit by those who recognize the importance of finding stability in the inherent strength of each other.
May we all remember that, just as we are loved, so we should strive to make each moment a practice of loving others. When we are able to extend this love through actions that serve the wellbeing of life, we create a new ground for us to stand on.
Blessings and peace from all of us at Plenitud!
