Return

Return to what is always within our reach ....

Lakeside sunrise L. Riedman 2024

As the world continues to swirl and shift around me – I can easily get caught up in the hurricane. What catches me every time is that, despite my “news diet”, with every news article I try to read, feelings of fear for the future tighten my heart. Sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe.

So I take a breath and another and another, and I turn to things I believe in. I return to truths that are bigger than the fear.

Truths like this:

“Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the relinquishment—or unlearning—of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts. Love is the essential existential fact. It is our ultimate reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life.”
― Marianne Williamson, Return to Love

This speaks to me. This calms me.

Marianne Williamson also touched upon the power of surrender in her book Return to Love. She said that when we surrender, we must relinquish any attachment to a particular outcome. This is the true meaning of letting go.

And, yes, this isn’t easy. Letting go has been a practice of mine for what feels like my entire life.

I experience this as a dance of acknowledging and recognizing where I am putting my energy – outside myself or inside.

You see, I have found that to truly let go of my attachment to how I want or wish things to be I must first recognize that most of this is me looking for something outside myself and ultimately -- outside of my “control”.

When I realize I’m doing this, it's a sign to go within.

So, I gently stop, take a pause, and take a breath (or two). It is then that I can consciously return my focus, energy, and attention inward. It is here – inside myself – I can discover and touch the peace that is within me. A peace that is always there,

You see, what we all seek – what I seek – is already here for us. We just have to pause long enough to feel it.

When I’m anxious, the peace and calm I so very much think I can find outside myself is really within reach -- within me.

Tich Nhat Hanh shares this wisdom in his book Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

“Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

To be awake in the present moment is the reason I am not ignoring the news swirling around me. It just means I have to take it in bits so it doesn’t overwhelm me – hence, my current news diet.

Yet, to be fully present, I may have to sit with the uncomfortableness for a bit, see it, feel it, and ride the tumultuous waves of the anxious energy I’m feeling. I ride these waves until I can access the space between those feelings. It is in the “gap” between the feelings where calm and peace reside. Once I can touch that peace within, I know that I will be Ok. I can see more clearly that there is quiet beneath the stormy sea. Deep down in the ocean, a whole different world exists that is quite distinct from the turmoil that lies above.

I have to let the storm pass. I can’t fight the storm. The more I fight it, the longer and stronger those waves become.

This is a basic Buddhist principle – the practice of nonjudgement – which allows us to acknowledge the presence of an emotion without getting swept away by it, labeling it, or attaching to it. We see it as what it is.

This is related to the principle of impermanence. This suggests that all things, including emotions, are impermanent and subject to change. Everything is constantly evolving.

The storm will subside. The tough times will end eventually. The sun will come out at some point (or it has always been there – it’s just temporarily covered up).

Just as waves rise and fall on the ocean, our emotions rise, peak, and eventually subside. Trying to hold onto positive emotions or suppress negative ones only creates suffering for ourselves and others.

We have to learn to ride the waves. We must become life surfers.

And, also practice what Marianne Williamson suggests – Return to love.

Sharon Salzberg, a meditation and mindfulness teacher, also teaches us that love is not just a feeling, but an ability —a practice.

And boy, this is a practice that isn’t easy in today’s world.

One way I remind myself of this is to ask myself – how can I love today? What can I do that is loving toward myself..... gentle to myself and others.

Life can be hard enough. We don’t need to make it harder.

So, how loving are you? How can you love today? How can we turn love into more than just a feeling – into an act – a daily practice?

One way to start is to touch the love that is there – inside right now. Despite your endless to-do list, what worries you or the fears ever present in our world, take a moment to feel what it is to be loved, to love another. Open your heart from the inside out.

If we pay attention to the love that surrounds us, we will begin to see and feel things not through the eyes of fear, but through a lens of love. This is our path to grace and peace. It is what lies deep inside the eye of a hurricane of fear.

As Marianne Williamson says, “The world we knew as children is still buried within our minds.”

Let’s return to that world. It’s not as chaotic, and I bet we can more easily find the joy, love, laughter, and peace there that we so desperately want.

It doesn’t mean we put our heads in the sand. It simply means that if we touch what has always been there – peace and love – we uncover a strength that helps us to keep moving forward, living in the now rather than being paralyzed by a future that we don’t even know will happen.

Let’s not let fear win. Let’s let love come out on top.

I’ll leave you with a quote I found that I had scribbled on a piece of paper. I didn’t know where it came from, but like many quotes I’ve scribbled on pieces of paper, it resonated with me when I first saw it, and it still speaks to me now.

(Note: A quick Google search attributed this to Cory Allen)

.....here’s the truth: No matter what’s happening around you—no matter what’s happening in the world, in your home, in your body—there’s always a place of peace within you.

Your heart and mind are a sanctuary. A space of freedom, clarity, and refuge.

You don’t have to escape to find it. You just have to return

― Cory Allen

Let’s return to that place together, shall we?