Happy Valentine's Day!
I hope this finds you well, and remembering that your very nature is LOVE!
I am writing from my winter home in Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico, once again. We celebrated the conclusion of our five day Valentine's Retreat on Friday evening, at a thatched restaurant on the beach - where everyone opened and read the Valentine's card they had written to themselves during the week. It was pretty darn sweet. And of course, the seafood is always fresh and delicious, and the sunset was spectacular.
The patio and ramada roof on top of my house was almost finished in time for the retreat. It still needs tile and paint, so this was our maiden voyage for the new teaching space, and it worked out pretty well. The evening meetings were especially delicious, when the town quieted, the stars came out, and the soft tropical breeze wafted through the space and our group.
When we were sharing our intentions at the beginning of the week, a common theme that came up for everyone was, "I want to access and become my Authentic Self." Our focus for the week was on our true nature as Love - to know that we ARE love. We looked at many old agreements built on the lie that love is a commodity outside of ourselves we have to bargain for by getting it right for others.
And we changed those agreements! We are love, we came into this world as love, we were made by the love of the very Life that creates and animates this universe. Our experience was based on my work with...
I love Rumi's poems, and often use this one to set the focus of my teaching these days:
"Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find
all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it."
We are not learning to love, we are learning to stop denying that love is our nature, our gift, our Life itself.
So the search for the authentic self does not lead us outside, but inside. And not inside to find that missing self, but simply to find and love into softness the barriers we have created to deny love within.
I hope you are using this sweet day of Valentine's Love to open your heart to yourself, and to honor your true nature. You ARE love.
We discover our Authentic Self when we have faith in the love that created us and that we are. When we listen deeply inside to the unique inspirations that arise in us, and then have the courage and faith to take action on them, we will become who we came here to be. And I guarantee the authentic life you create will be a masterpiece of art.
Try it, you might like it.
Let me hear from you: allanh@sonic.net
Be part of the Joydancer Family
and sponsor a student to higher education
In Chacala students can only study through the 6th grade, and then must go out to another town to continue school. If the parents don't have enough money for books, the shuttle van, or uniforms, the kids stay home.
There is an organization here called "Cambiando Vidas/Changing Lives" that supports students with scholarships to go to school beyond Chacala. Our Joydancer Family is about 3/4's of the way to the $720 US that it takes to sponsor a student for one year - I want you to help us hit our goal before the second big fund-raising dinner this Friday night.
The Cambiando Vidas website is here.
We have established donation buttons in our Joydancer Store if you would like to join us to support a student. We need another $170 for a full scholarship. The future is in the hands of the young.
Will you help? Donate here
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