make it so

What would it be like to move through the world knowing that you are safe, and that you are loved?

And from that base, to move through the world as safety, as love?

I received this thought experiment-slash-challenge in a meditation recently, and offer it here to you.

Of course, I know on a practical level the world is not safe for me, and even more unsafe for many others. I know many lack for love in the forms they most desire it, and not one of us has been loved perfectly or arrived at this day unscathed.

But for just a moment, let’s set those practicalities aside. Let’s imagine another way.

Digging deep into a sense of fundamental interconnectedness, of agape, of boddhichitta, of unconditional and universal love for self and others, let’s believe – no, let’s KNOW that we are safe, held in a protective bubble no harm can penetrate. Let’s KNOW we are loved perfectly. The way we were and are parented, siblinged, lovered, beloved, friended.

And from there, let’s see ourselves move into the world AS safety – extending that bubble of no-harm out as far as we can see, then as far as we can hear, then as far as we can feel, then as far as we can imagine, and then further still. Safety. Liberation. Ease. And AS love – loving those we know and hold close, those we don’t, those we really don’t, those we’ve never met, those we’ll never meet, those we aren’t sure even exist. Warm, accepting, embracing, heart to heart, love.

For just a minute or an hour or a day, let’s imagine it so. Because the only way it will ever be true is if it is first imagined.

Beauties, I know terrible harm is being done. I will not turn from that knowing. I also know that I can do far more good in the world when anchored firmly to an internal sense of basic safety, of boundless love.

So I say to myself as I walk the park, I am safe and I am loved. I say to myself as I travel the highway, I am safety and I am love. As I navigate a throng of strangers, I am safe and I am loved. As I enter an argument, I am safety and I am love.

And for a moment – which is also forever – it is true. We make it so. Let’s make it so.