“Only love, only love, only love, how many times must I tell you before you jump into the fire!”
Rumi
I have loved these words from the brilliant soul of the great Sufi poet. To me, they are a clarion call to abandon, to leap with faith and give all of yourself to Divine love – no matter what!
Love is only frightening before you leap. Living this side of the threshold, the doubtful, small mind grumbles with questions, reservations, rationalizations, and diatribes of complaints. It will even poke blame at others in a defensive, stalling tactic. The body is tense, preparing for some imagined assault that will surely shock the heart into overwhelming emotional pain. At least this is the fearful story that has been laid down before us like some inevitable punishment for our trust. And we have been willing to believe it, living it as though it were truth; it’s still more comfortable to rest in the shame and separation, or escape into a false spirituality of bliss, than deeply risk. We are afraid that, if we do, we will not receive the liberation promised us.
Another gentler perception perhaps is that jumping into the fire of love is like child’s play, filled with wandering and wondering, and acceptance of what is. The wise child in each of us is intimate with love for s/he is a Spirit of creativity, intuition, innovation, authenticity, resourcefulness, and boundlessness. S/he is the very definition of sacred play. In the healing process, I often hear this graceful child ask to be put in the centre of an individual’s life. The plea from him/her is gentle but certain, and holds one hope – to be able to play big! As for many when they were young, play was considered to be unacceptable foolishness, or it was set aside in some requirement to grow up fast. So when your inner Child fully emerges through his/her dismantled illusions of denial and darkness, s/he is radiant with Light, and freedom from limitation is the fuel for his/her passion.
“Play is organic to who and what we are, a process as instinctive as breathing.”
Diane Ackerman, Deep Play
“The very existence of youth is due in part to the necessity for play:
the animal does not play because it is young; he has a period of youth because he must play.”
Karl Groos, evolutionary biologist
The spaciousness of play is what kindles the flame in the heart and the fire in the belly*. It is an invitation into possibility rather than the expectation to meet an outcome. It has no goal and only the innate intention to take you into deeper commitment to your true Self. The most delicious, life-affirming and marvelous experiences arise from a spontaneous dance with the invisible Mystery. We are no longer living in the predictability of linear time. Re-creation in each moment is the answered quest to know God.
“Play is training for the unexpected.”
Marc Bekoff
“………Hindus, when they speak of the creation of the universe,
do not call it the work of God but the play of God, the Vishnu-lila, lila meaning ‘play’.”
Alan Watts in Zen and the Beat Way
When you jump into love you can fear what you may lose or you can focus your awareness on what is newly unfolding from your soul. Some people may ask how we can enter into deep play at a time when our world is in crisis with geographic disasters, famine, deceit, discrimination, and abuse of all forms of God. But this is the perfect time to be a master of your centered, high-vibrational Divine Child, as we birth through a holy change along with the Divine Mother. She needs you to jump into the fire now. Yes, there is a threshold. And may we all be en-courage-d to face the truth of our shadow, a radical honesty to passionately direct us toward the tipping point of consciousness, that we may, at last, create a new version of ourselves.
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.”
Carl Jung
“Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens
[and any pressure to take on the enormity of our global challenges with imbalance].
It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities.”
Stuart Brown, MD
Make time for sacred play often, whether it is dancing, chanting, writing, watching the clouds or hiking. Be intentional in your play and give your fear over to your GodSelf: let yourself be consumed by the love that is the essential you. Then, rather than feed your resistance to love, your imagination can nourish compassionate activism on Earth. Your body can relax into joyful and meaningful expressions of comm-unity. And any heartache you hold, either personal or for the collective of humanity and all creation, can be turned into our saving grace.
Jump, jump, jump,
how many more times will you hesitate
before you fall into your own arms?
* One way to enhance the fire element in your body, is to visualize your heart emitting light and heat as a radiant sun.
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