Love Is All You Need
Love. Love. Love.
I have revisited the song recently and the lyrics speak to me in a way I have not heard before. That, to me is the sign of a song that resonates with you. You hear it again and again and it continues to reveal itself to you.
For the longest time, pretty much my entire life, I thought I had to earn love.
Yes, sit with that statement for a moment. I am. It is one thing to think it, to have believed it, to internalize it. It is another to speak it. To put it to words.
I thought I had to earn love.
I thought it was something conditional. Something you got in return for something else. Something that was given to you when you did something for someone.
I could go on and on, diving deep into the ocean of stories that I have told myself based on experiences that I have placed myself in, over and over again.
I know that you do not get love. You do not find love. You do not receive love.
For you are love. Love is who you are. Pure love. Always loving in all ways.
Which brings me to the song, All You Need is Love.
I thought that once I got love then everything would be good. Once I found love, all would be okay.
What is love though? What really is love?
I taught writing to children for a long time, I still do now in some version of “teaching.” One strategy that I use time and time again is called “Lift The Line.” In this strategy, you lift a line from text, either something you wrote or the words someone else wrote. You place that line at the top and then you write, expanding on the words that you lifted.
I feel called to use this strategy here, to share with you what has been arising for me when I revisited the song All you Need is Love by the Beatles.
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.
Anything and everything is possible. There are infinite possibilities. Anything and everything is possible. The only thing holding us back is our own selves, our own perceived limitations. Anything is possible. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game.
I strive to be clear, to be articulate, to locate the words that convey exactly where I am at, what I am thinking, what I want to say. I am aware of what I choose to say, when I choose to say it, the words I choose to use, how I am going to convey what it is that I have to say. I know in the power of words. I know of the power of what is spoken, what is not spoken, the container that holds the words and the container that holds the unspoken words.
You can write your own script so meticulously. You can attempt to write scripts for others. How others choose to hear what you have to say, how others choose to receive what you have to say is up to them. It is their choice, whether they are conscious of this or not. How they receive what you have to say is not up to you. You can not control how others hear what you say. For everyone hears what it is that they are ready to hear, what they want to hear. What they hear is based on what their consciousness state is able receive in that moment.
This is all a game. This is all a play. This is all a dance. This life, this life is a play. Many stages. Many scripts. Many actors. Many directors. I am the actor. I am the director. I am the set designer. I am the costume designed. I am the script writer.
Play. Play. Play. Play with it all. Dance the dance. Play the game. Play your part. Embrace the role you are meant to be.
Nothing you can do, but can you learn how to be you in time.
Words cannot begin to capture the profoundness held within these words. There is nothing else to say. The line itself speaks. Profoundly beautiful.
There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known
One my first day in India, October 31, 2018, my intention was to leave my hotel to explore Old Delhi and I had been advised to get a guide. While I had contacted a few potential guides before I arrived, I did not set any firm plans. I inquired with the front desk at my hotel to see if they had any tours going out that day, I was told they did not.
I knew I was not going to spend my first day in India in a hotel, so I looked up important words that I thought I would use while walking about in Old Dehli. On a post-it wrote down, thank you, sorry, how much and no thank you. (*I think it is fascinating that I felt at the time, that knowing “sorry” was a useful word! Oh how far I have come!) I listened to the translations of the words and wrote them in a way I could pronounce them. I gathered my bag and with my post it in my hand I walked down the stairs to the front door. I paused at the front desk, reassuring myself by getting outside validation that I could walk to the Red Fort on my own. Right before I was ready to walk down the steps to the road, I turned to share my post-it asking if there was anything else I needed to know before I left. This is what I received,
“Oh, no, no, no Ma’am. The only thing you need to know how to say here in India is, “Mujhe Sab Pta Hai.”
Which translates to “I already know everything.”
Yes, this is the message I received on my first morning in India. Beautiful, I know. So are the events that followed, leading me to KNOW this phrase. (That is an experience for another post.)
There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
What is the familiar phrase? “Wherever you go, oops there you are.” You cannot escape yourself; you cannot run from yourself, you cannot hide from yourself-I know, I have tried! There is nowhere else you are meant to be. No place for you to go. No place to arrive at. Simply, be here now.
Years ago I learned of the song “I am I,” written by Eric Hansen. Every year as the school year began this was one of the first songs I would introduce to our community. We would sing it over and over again. I listen to it now with my nieces. It is a beautiful song. Eric writes, “I am I, said I. I am me, said me. I am exactly who I am supposed to be.” I add in the line, “I am I, said I. I am me, said me. I am exactly where I am meant to be.”
Love is all you need
It is. I know. You know how I know? I have accessed it within myself. I have located love within me. Lost to me, never lost to itself. For love loves love. That is its nature. Love is within me. Love is me. I am love. Now that I know this, I know, love is all I need.
Loving you in all ways, always.
Sara