Saturday, Sep 01, 2018 A Message from Marydale – September 2018
Labor of Love.
With the arrival of September there is a promise of busy days ahead for all of us. How fitting that we start the month taking pause to appreciate all those around us who labor for the betterment of our lives personally and for the world as a whole.
As the holidays bear relentlessly down upon us, there is no doubt that a lot of labor is necessary to create goods and services that support our hopes, dreams, wishes, and all of the other necessities that make our world spin.
Diving deep into the underpinnings of what makes the daily practice of yoga so soul-inspiring and life-supporting, we discover an innate simplicity that translates to pure Love. What may appear to be an endless complexity of scriptures, ideals, practices, and promises of an integrated life experience would not fulfill us without the constant Presence of Love.
All of us contribute to either the ongoing harmony of a magnificent world and human experience or (often unconsciously) to the apparent chaos. Yoga, through the simple precept of constant presence, encourages us to choose the former through disciplined thoughts that ultimately become actions and, thus, create our experience.
This month I challenge you to commit yourself to living a life of love by deciding that your very life will be an endless contribution through the “labor of Love.” Constantly ask yourself: “Is this a loving thought? Am I acting and/or behaving in a loving way?”
You might think this is an impractical and radical approach to a world of conflict, indecision, lack of purpose, and so on…however, that’s the whole point! What you think, how you speak, and how you act matters! You hold the keys to the kingdom in your circle of influence—large or small. Energetically, you set up a chain reaction in everything that you create. Yoga pushes us to be responsible for who we are and encourages us to grow more in Love, in integrity, in peace, and in the Spirit of wisdom and Grace.
If you are willing to take this challenge, write back to me and sign the pledge to be a Labor of Love Advocate. Together, let’s hold hands as we create the life we love—for ourselves—for everyone.
Join me, won’t you? Your Love can change the world.
Love, Love, Love,
“The sooner we understand that we ourselves contain the entire universe, that we have the source of happiness within us, that we already possess all the objects we could desire, the sooner we can obtain the peace we seek.
“Rather than running endlessly after what dazzles us in the exterior world, we need to learn how to fix our attention on the magnificent universe within.”
— Paramahamsa Prajnanananda