Dropping Keys

by bkajlich

Tonight’s post, oddly enough, is about love.

Not so odd, considering it’s Valentines Day(it is 1am as I type this).

But I don’t want to talk about girlfriend and boyfriend love. Relationship love. Marriage love. I don’t even want to talk about family love and friendship love.

I want to talk about the two types of love that aren’t really going to be addressed today, February 14th, 2010.

LOVING YOURSELF.

AND

LOVING PEOPLE YOU EITHER DON’T KNOW OR DON’T LIKE…. OR POSSIBLY HATE.

Now, it’s possible that I am starting to lose it a little bit. I have upped my meditation, I must warn you.  I have lengthened my sits, and the number of times a day I am sitting.  However, if I am losing it, then I hope to god I don’t ever find it.

Yeah. It’s that good.

There’s a Persian Sufi poet by the name of Hafiz.  Little is known about him, but judging by his poetry, the man done lost it thousands of years ago.  When I read his work, I want to strip naked and run through a torrential downpour, laughing and singing.  It makes me feel like a child again.  It makes me feel uninhibited and free.

It makes me think about how much time and effort we put into finding someone to love, when the one being who we will truly spend the rest of our lives with gets left in the cold.

When was the last time you wooed yourself?  C’mon, get your mind outta the gutter.  I mean it, when have you lavished attention and praise on yourself in the same way you would as with someone that you were interested in?  I know it sounds weird, but is it really?  Don’t you think that if you expect other people to treat you a certain way, you should be treating yourself that way first? Why is this so hard?  Why are words like selfish, and self indulgent used to describe things that really are just self loving?  Hafiz says:

Plant

So that your own heart will grow

Love

So that God will think “ahhhhhh I got kin in that body. I should start inviting that soul over for coffee and rolls”

Sing

Because this is a food that our starving world needs

Laugh

Because that is the purest sound.

Now onto the subject of loving people you don’t know, or don’t like, or possibly hate.  This is the hardest. This is what I struggle with the MOST.  I don’t have good advice for you on this, other than to say it must be done. HOW? Maybe that is the purpose of this life, to understand the how.  In buddhism, it is taught that each person arrives in our life with a lesson to teach us, and that if we ignore the person and their purpose, we lose out on the opportunity to learn more about ourselves.  I like to turn to Hafiz for all matters that make me feel a bit crazy….

The small man builds cages

for everyone

he knows.

While the sage

who has to duck his head

when the moon is low,

Keeps dropping keys all night long,

for the

Beautiful

Rowdy

Prisoners.

It is easy to love those we want to love, harder to love those who make it difficult, and hardest of all to really, truly love ourselves.

I want to say Happy Valentines Day to all of you, my dear hearts… And to tell you how much faith I have in the courage of each of you, to find yourselves beautifully, authentically loveable…. xxB








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