Wow. What a piece. I needed this, we all need this. Thank you.
I often struggle with the limitations I have to act on my ethics. When family or health or economics or whatever preclude taking more ‘active’ roles in organisations or protest or just helping where needed.
I guess there is a problem of locality, when it’s on your street- you’re life is upended anyway, and you act very differently as part of a group. People come together like during covid. When you feel like you’re the only person who cares enough to change what they are doing it’s so hard to do anything because you meet resistance everywhere and life in this wage slave exploitative culture is challenging enough as it is right!
So I don’t actually know what to do. I can try to create an island of calm sanity where I am and try to make it spread and support others, and maybe change some minds... and wow if we all did this, if EVERYONE went home and loved their children and neighbours (to quote mother Teresa) what a world that would be.. but it’s not. So it never feels like enough. Whilst I do have faith it is not a futile thing to do, I wish it were clearer what to do to help.
I guess you pick a cause you know and you fight for it...
Radical love to me includes really "opening your heart". Part of this is developing a direct physical awareness of your heart, or generally, the space within your chest (your heart is in there on the left). There are helpful guidelines for this at heartmath.com. In doing this what I have run into in that my heart area sensations are associated with intense memories, both positive and negative, from my past. These memories can launch me into thinking about those times, and re-exercising those feelings. The challege there is that my heart energy is then not available to apply to the present. That is, if I'm distracted with my personal past, I cannot feel sympathy, empathy and compassion for the suffering in the world today. Nor can I use my heart-mind intuition to gain penetrating insights into the causes of the suffering, in order to identify what I can do about it. Often the answer is that I can do little or nothing. Yet very often the answer is that I can =learn more= about the situations causing the suffering, including both the material and psychological aspects. To me that's part of the power of the heart-mind: it provides energy for compassion =and= love =and= work =and= learning. Opening my heart in this way is an ongoing challenge. It is sometimes disturbing, even disruptive. Yet I am determined, remembering that I was born with an open heart, that closing it came from my experiences in the world, and that opening it is a choice I can still make.
My name is Marie - I'm the manager and communications coordinator for NetworkWeaver.com. I've been subscribed to Planet Critical for a while and am a great admirer of your work.
I wasn't able to find an email address for you, so I am reaching out here to inquire if you would be interested in sharing this post and/or other posts with the Network Weaver community. NW offers free content to all – in support of equity, justice and transformation for all.
We would cross-post the publication as a blog. The content would be promoted in our weekly newsletter and social media avenues. Authorship and original place of publication would be cited.
Historically, authors/networks have found an increased interest in their work and traffic to their sites when their content is published at Network Weaver.
You can reach me at Network Weaver Manager @ gmail . com
Radical Love is More Than a Noun
Wow. What a piece. I needed this, we all need this. Thank you.
I often struggle with the limitations I have to act on my ethics. When family or health or economics or whatever preclude taking more ‘active’ roles in organisations or protest or just helping where needed.
I guess there is a problem of locality, when it’s on your street- you’re life is upended anyway, and you act very differently as part of a group. People come together like during covid. When you feel like you’re the only person who cares enough to change what they are doing it’s so hard to do anything because you meet resistance everywhere and life in this wage slave exploitative culture is challenging enough as it is right!
So I don’t actually know what to do. I can try to create an island of calm sanity where I am and try to make it spread and support others, and maybe change some minds... and wow if we all did this, if EVERYONE went home and loved their children and neighbours (to quote mother Teresa) what a world that would be.. but it’s not. So it never feels like enough. Whilst I do have faith it is not a futile thing to do, I wish it were clearer what to do to help.
I guess you pick a cause you know and you fight for it...
Radical love to me includes really "opening your heart". Part of this is developing a direct physical awareness of your heart, or generally, the space within your chest (your heart is in there on the left). There are helpful guidelines for this at heartmath.com. In doing this what I have run into in that my heart area sensations are associated with intense memories, both positive and negative, from my past. These memories can launch me into thinking about those times, and re-exercising those feelings. The challege there is that my heart energy is then not available to apply to the present. That is, if I'm distracted with my personal past, I cannot feel sympathy, empathy and compassion for the suffering in the world today. Nor can I use my heart-mind intuition to gain penetrating insights into the causes of the suffering, in order to identify what I can do about it. Often the answer is that I can do little or nothing. Yet very often the answer is that I can =learn more= about the situations causing the suffering, including both the material and psychological aspects. To me that's part of the power of the heart-mind: it provides energy for compassion =and= love =and= work =and= learning. Opening my heart in this way is an ongoing challenge. It is sometimes disturbing, even disruptive. Yet I am determined, remembering that I was born with an open heart, that closing it came from my experiences in the world, and that opening it is a choice I can still make.
Hi Rachel,
My name is Marie - I'm the manager and communications coordinator for NetworkWeaver.com. I've been subscribed to Planet Critical for a while and am a great admirer of your work.
I wasn't able to find an email address for you, so I am reaching out here to inquire if you would be interested in sharing this post and/or other posts with the Network Weaver community. NW offers free content to all – in support of equity, justice and transformation for all.
We would cross-post the publication as a blog. The content would be promoted in our weekly newsletter and social media avenues. Authorship and original place of publication would be cited.
Historically, authors/networks have found an increased interest in their work and traffic to their sites when their content is published at Network Weaver.
You can reach me at Network Weaver Manager @ gmail . com
Thanks for your consideration.
I know exactly what you mean about radical love. This is my way of saying the same thing:
https://jonathanfostersthecrow.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-crow