It’s mid February, and Love comes to mind, and heart! Happy Valentine’s Day 🙂 And if you’re not big on that commercialized holiday, then I’d invite you to reflect on how Love features in your life — now, and at times past. What would you wish for the future?
In recent weeks I have had some blah moments, periods in some days where life felt kind of grey and dull. As I worked with these experiences, I even found myself wondering, “What’s the point of all this?”
It was a rich journey: feeling into the blah place, knowing from experience that it won’t last, not particularly liking it, but allowing it nevertheless. Knowing that focussing on Gratitude is a “skillful means” to escape, but not trying to “escape” just to understand it better, I came to the sense that for me, the Point of All This, the Point of Existence, is to Live the Mystery.
I am deeply moved by The Mystery, which for me is the best word for “God,” “the Absolute,” the Core and Origin of it All. This Mystery is unfolding — dynamically, continually, and I am part of it. My consciousness, my being, IS the mystery. The Mystery IS me, and you, and the air, stardust, the seahorses, the plankton, the atoms, the murderers, the refugees, the Trumps and Trudeaus… All of it.
And what better way to Live the Mystery, than to Love it! A big topic!
Love for me has been a conundrum… It was the last chapter I wrote in BECOMING: Journeying Toward Authenticity. Love has grown on me, and in me, though, and I now trust my heart in ways that often reveal treasures, sometimes surprising, touching and sweet.
Still, I am ever grateful for pointers, invitations, opportunities — to learn and grow and deepen in Love. And here is a beautiful and fruitful one.
A friend and fellow journeyer, Anne Hillman, has just launched the revised and updated, 2nd edition of her beautiful book, Awakening to the Energies of Love: Discovering Fire for the Second Time. What a gift it is! Perfectly timed, and deeply needed, for all here on this glorious and troubled planet.
An excerpt from the Preface gives a flavor for Anne’s offering: “An entirely new Intelligence has been blinking in and out of human existence for thousands of years. This astonishing gift has emerged from the immense creativity of the universe and is now becoming stabilized in increasing numbers of people the world over. I call it the emergent consciousness of Love. Such a consciousness is not a different way of thinking; it is a radically different orientation–to everything. Our work is to cooperate with it.”
Anne’s book is inspired by Teilhard de Chardin, and reviewed by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry. I look forward to perusing my copy. I invite you to get yours.
More about Love: my heart opened recently when I watched this video posted by IONS (the Institute of Noetic Sciences), to mark moon walking astronaut Edgar Mitchell’s passing. We are truly One. And Love is the nature of all creation.
It is also the beginning of Lent in the Christian tradition. Lent was always observed in my home growing up. A time of preparation and reflection, and focus on the Lord of Love!
The founder of the contemporary spiritual path, The Diamond Approach, A. H. 
Almaas actually has a book by the title, The Point of Existence. He deals with the extreme and illusionary self- focus, Narcissism, and describes how this distortion blocks us from knowing our True Nature…
Sometimes we feel as though Love, and Happiness, and Joy should be intense… that the gentle moments, the soft openings, the hints and snippets don’t really count. Well here’s a nice piece, also from the IONS site, that says the opposite it true: With Happiness, don’t go for intensity! I found it heartening and illuminating. Often the openings, being touched, shifting from the ordinary to the deep, is very subtle… easy to overlook and miss.
What, for you, is the Point of Existence? Where do you find your ground, your meaning and purpose? What is real for you, and transformative, touching your soul and spirit.
Your feedback and comments are most welcome!
Jill Schroder is the author of BECOMING: Journeying Toward Authenticity. BECOMING is an invitation for self-reflection, and to mine our memorable moments for insights, meaning, and growth. Check the website for a sample chapter, or see the reviews to get a flavor for the volume. Follow me on Twitter, let’s be friends on Facebook 
