Love. That’s my motto for life…just one word: love. It’s a one-word sentence that can be read as an invitation, a required action, or a naming of what is ultimately real. This scene that I captured this past summer inspires me toward love…to live my life gliding across waters—serene on the surface, while sustained by unseen action beneath the surface.
Shane, love! I am sure that on some days…I need the reminder to act in loving ways…to respond to others before all of my survival instincts make a mess of things…to engage in more self-forgetting (or is it really remembering!) and focus on building others up. In those moments, love is the other-loving practice I am committed to. On other days, I must remember to choose the quiet, persistent practice of love, even when my inner waters are choppy and disrupted…this is an practice of self-love.
Shane, Love! There are many days I need to remind myself that I live in a larger reality than the one presented to us by the marketers and politicos of our day. Love is the ultimate reality, the energy that holds all things together. Love is the unescapable and ever-present Reality of my existence. Without Love, I don’t exist. I am because Love is. I need reminded because I am still learning to trust that Love, like the water, holds me within its larger reality—vast, unthreatened, and ever-present.
Shane, love! And then there are the invitations of love…fondness and affection. There are moments when I need to be reminded, Shane, this is love! And such love is two-fold…allowing my own heart to be tender and open to receiving affection when offered, and offering affection with vulnerability and grace, creating moments where connection can flourish.
Yes, this is my life motto: Shane, love!
Shane Ash 