“What if you would see the world from love? What would you see? What if you could see into hearts from your own heart? What if you could really see as I do see?” ~ Like a Thousand Stars by HeavenLetters

I opened my Facebook page to this quote and was moved by its cogent and urging questions.

I asked myself, in fact, what if I would see the world with love? How would the world look different? And more specifically, exactly what world was the writer speaking of?

Was the writer speaking only of the world “out there?”

The one in which police are wearing riot gear and citizens are looting their own neighborhoods while others are shooting down their families and children?

The world in which we make war and kill each other by sending troops to this country or that country and in which other countries do the same all in the name of keeping peace.

The world in which it appears that every group is pointing its finger at another group and saying, “It’s them, not us.”?

The world in which we say we never do what “they” do and in which they point back and say the same about us.

It’s fairly easy to see that big outer world with love and to share quotes about how we need to love it. It’s easy because that big outer world essentially exists out there, on television, in pictures, on our phones. It exists in theory only and we only have to love it in theory—on Facebook.

Click. Share. Done. I’ve seen the world from love.

Or have I?

Have I changed anything?

Isn’t it my personal actions beyond sharing a quote on Facebook that really changes things?

I can’t really bring love to the big outer world. It’s too big. It’s too…out there. But I can bring love to my little world. The one around me. The one in which my neighbor didn’t behave the way I wanted him to, the clerk in the grocery store was glum, the waitress was inattentive, in which even my husband used a tone of voice I didn’t like, or my friend didn’t call me back and my boss didn’t send me that e-mail I’ve been waiting for.

What if before I go to sleep at night, I say to myself a version of what Jim Cotter says in his “Prayers at Night Approaching”?

What if I say to myself:

Love be in my head and in my understanding
Love be in my eyes and in my looking
Love be in my mouth and in my speaking
Love be in my tongue and in my tasting
Love be in my lips and in my greeting

Love be in my nose and in my scenting
Love be in my ears and in my hearing
Love be in my neck and in my humbling
Love be in my shoulders and in my bearing
Love be in my back and in my standing

Love be in my arms and in my reaching
Love be in my hands and in my working
Love be in my legs and in my walking
Love be in my feet and in my grounding
Love be in my joints and in my relating

Love be in my guts and in my feeling
Love be in my bowels and in my forgiving
Love be in my loins and in my coupling
Love be in my lungs and in my breathing
Love be in my heart and in my loving

Love be in my skin and in my touching
Love be in my flesh and in my yearning
Love be in my blood and in my living
Love be in my bones and in my dying
Love be at my end and in my beginning.

What if I thought that thought, or prayed that prayer or surrendered to that plea?

How then would the world change?

“You would favor all. You would bless all. You would make a difference in everyone’s life. You would shine light like a thousand stars. You would pick everyone up and brush them off.” ~ Like a Thousand Stars by HeavenLetters

 

Author: Carmelene Siani

Editor: Evan Yerburgh

Photo: Flickr