Bismillah or Ahman or Ahim in the name of the One Most Compassionate,
Most Merciful,
Most Kind.
This is Mark Silver with Heart of Business and welcome to the Monday Remembrance.
We just start by noticing how we're feeling.
And sometimes it's not so easy to notice how we're feeling.
Sometimes there's a numbness or a distraction.
We're full of thoughts where our attention is outside ourselves and all of that is perfectly normal.
That's part of how we're feeling.
It's distracted or distant.
And so just slowly bringing our attention back to our own body and our own heart and our own breathing,
Noticing what's true.
Noticing.
And sometimes the world feels like we're surrounded by wildfires as some people actually are physically or we're being battered by waves and floods.
Sometimes a world seems really violent,
Really strong,
Really hard.
Sometimes connecting to love doesn't feel like the answer.
We may intellectually know or think we know that love is the answer.
It seems like we need something much more than that.
But what is love?
What is our image of love?
And so we let ourselves embrace the loneliness and the wildness and the fear and the danger,
All that surrounds us,
All that we're present upon by.
And we feel the thirst in our heart.
We feel the anger and the need.
And we begin to ask in our hearts,
What really is love?
Is love soft and gentle or is love something different?
And I find it useful sometimes to lean into a different word for love.
I find it useful to use the Arabic word wadud,
The loving.
To take myself out of all of the preconceived notions and associations I have with the word love to feel something completely different.
And to let my heart be opened and to let myself be willing to be surprised asking,
What is love?
What is wadud?
Ya Allah ya wadud.
What is here?
And I let my head bow in humility in the unknown.
I let my heart bow in the sincerity and the yearning for the truth.
And I let myself ask.
What is love?
What is wadud?
Noticing that sometimes what I'm needing is fierce love.
Love that can stand against all comers.
Love that can take on all challengers.
Love that stands taller than the highest waves and is cooler and wetter than the hottest flames.
And can fill up the valleys and encircle the mountains.
Something that can deal so fiercely with what comes and yet so gently and so tenderly with the openness and vulnerability in my own heart.
What is here when I ask?
What is here?
And what does it feel like to open my heart to this fierce love?
What does it feel like to open your heart to this fierce love?
To let yourself be inflamed by it.
To let yourself be carried with it.
To let yourself look through it and to see the world through the eyes of fierce love.
There's so much.
There's so much.
And yet there is nothing that is larger than the divine.
There's nothing that is greater than the source of love.
Hmm.
Hmm.
What if standing on your shoulder was the angel of fierce love?
What if dancing in your heart was the fire of fierce love?
What if clearing the path before you was the sword of fierce love?
What if embracing you tightly from behind was the comfort and protection of fierce love?
Aah,
Oma.
Aah,
Wadud.
Aah,
Wadud.
If that was true,
If your way was prepared and your heart inflamed and you were accompanied and embraced,
How would that change your life?
How would that change your business?
How would that change your reality if that were true?
And is it possible that it is true?
And what is your heart aware of when it asks about it?
And what is your heart aware of when it asks about it?
Hmm.
Aah.
Hmm.
Aah.
And what if it wasn't you that had to be fierce?
What if you could just be yourself?
Your tender self?
Everything that's true for you is still true and you're not in any respects different.
Just that this quality was showing up for you and around you and within you.
What do you notice?
And just continuing to call to the Divine.
Instead of fighting the world,
Calling to the Divine.
And letting the qualities of the Divine show up for you.
Letting the presence of the Oneness show up for you and enervate you,
Inspire you and carry you.
And then just noticing any authentic gratitude,
Appreciation rising up in your heart from the experience of this remembrance.
And letting yourself express that to the Divine.
And then if you're wishing to remain in remembrance,
Of course,
Stay with it as long as you desire.
And if you're needing to return to your day knowing that the remembrance and all that is available within the remembrance is available to you in any moment,
You can return to it in any breath.
Taking a nice gentle breath and letting yourself return.
Peace.
