Love Letters

Written by Neshni Naidoo

We traditionally think of a love letter in romantic terms. But did you know that you receive love letters from God every day?

It comes in the form of an answer to a prayer or a question that you voiced. This love letter appears in the most unexpected places – a song, a line in a movie, a photo, something in nature, a phone call from a friend or even a random page in a random book.

How do I know this? Well, I have received many love letters, but only when my heart was open and my mind as clear as the summer sky.

On days when I need a reminder of His Love, I find hearts. A heart-shaped leaf in my garden. A guinea fowl feather with a heart pattern on my dad’s passing anniversary. Heart-shaped cherries on a family outing to the cherry farm. A heart shape in a tree on Mother’s Day. Finding these hearts lightens and brightens my day and makes my heart expand with love.

My other love letters come in the form of signs – on cars, billboards, or buildings. Each of these is a special message that I needed to reflect on and help me on my journey. I love to sing, especially when I am driving. I was singing one of my favourite hymns, “How Great Thou Art” and when I looked across, the taxi next to me had the words, “Jesus Loves You,” on the rear windscreen. It was confirmation as if God were saying, “I hear you.”

On another day, the car in front of me had a sticker on the rear window – it was a cross with the text 29:11. This verse from the bible states:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

– Jeremiah 29:11

This came on a day when I was paralysed by self-doubt.

There are days when I don’t see or hear anything. It is usually when I am functioning on autopilot or have filled my day with busy-ness.

This article is not a brag post but a reminder that we are blessed – we are loved. Pause, breathe and be aware – be awake. If we are sleepwalking through life – putting our attention only on the material, we will miss the miracles that surround us – we will miss the love letters that God is sending us to guide us and light up our way through the darkness.

Are you aware of the love letters you have received?

Wishing you love and light.

I Learnt

Written by Olivia Britz

Do not allow anyone to steal that which you value. Do not allow anyone to cloud your thoughts about anyone or anything. Lean hard on your heart’s honesty and learn to discipline the mind for it is the mind and not the heart which causes us the hurt. The heart is the true centre being of love. Do what makes your heart happy. Spend time tending to your heart so that it may be your own happy space and place.

Seek comfort in the Lord, spend time with God and look out for the signs of the life that God wants for you. Do not chase after man and material things, instead find the glory that God has provided and seek refuge in that.

Give no power to man to control your happiness and your moods.

Stand firm like an oak and do not flutter in the breeze by an opinion of one who does not know the true content of your heart.

Become strong and exercise your own discernment. Be your true self, self-reflect and grow strong in the perfect soul that you are – loved exactly as you are.

Be okay with that, while growing to love yourself each day.

Inspired by St Francis of Assisi Prayer by Catherine Glennie

O Great Force of Love Divine make me an instrument of your peace, even if it requires expressing my power – and stirring up trouble
Where there is upset, let me bring wisdom – knowing that upset is actually an invitation to heal
Where there is hatred, let me bring love especially self-love – as it is secretly myself I hate most
Where there is discord, let me bring unity by not seeing separation – in me or the cosmos
Where there is judgement let me access stillness – knowing that as I embrace what is, I give permission to the holy flow of life
Where there is error let me bring truth – not a convenient truth but raw love-driven honesty
Where there is desire let me not judge wanting – but remember that desire is the Soul tapping on the window of my life
Where there is doubt let me bring faith, especially that everything done serves a higher purpose
Where there is despair let me bring hope, a holy energy that changes ones relationship with life

Oh great and Infinite Wisdom let me seek not to always be focused on the ‘I’, rather to see and speak to the ‘we’
Let me seek not to be understood but to understand that this crazy world is an illusion and to the extent that I know I am dreaming is the extent to which consciousness is raised
Let me seek not to be loved but rather to express the love that I truly am
For it is in giving that one becomes one with the abundance of the universe
And it is in self forgetting that one finds the true connection with you O Love Divine
(And oh Lord, please let this go viral.)

The Gift of Fear by Karin Kelly Lawrenz

Our culture vilifies fear. But like any emotion, fear is neither bad nor good. Each emotion has an evolutionary purpose. They all have vital messages for us if we dare to listen. What matters, what makes the difference is what we do with each emotion, how we react to it.

Fear, after all, has allowed humans and the rest of our mammalian family to survive eons, to survive unspeakable dangers. At its core, fear protects life. It fights for life. Many think it is a life-stopping emotion, but think of the many times fear has kept you or those you love safe. Think of the times it has warned you. Sent you brilliant intuitions. Kicked in your instincts, your highest most ingenious response. Protected that which needed protecting. Fear keeps us alive. It is vital. But when in shadow, when unconscious or when wounded, fear can harm in a misguided attempt to protect.

But fear itself is not, as so many teach, the opposite of love. In fact, we can use our fear to love better, love more, love deeper. We can use fear to care for ourselves and others, in ways that benefit all, beyond our immediate circle, beyond our town, our nation, our species.

We can use fear to innovate, to collaborate, to intuit the future and create solutions, to unify instead of polarize, to pay attention to and prioritize who and what needs our care, to prepare for change, to get to the bottom of issues instead of pointing fingers in blame. Yes, fear even has the ability to lessen our hate and our blame *if* we use fear wisely, if we use it consciously.

But few emotions we find more uncomfortable than fear. Few emotions we blame so many of our personal and societal woes on. Yet, as long as we condemn fear, keep it at arms length, react to it with minimal awareness or demand to replace it with easier emotions, it will incapacitate us. Instead of having fear, it will have us. As long as it is misunderstood and disparaged it will remain unconscious. And the more unconscious it is, the more invisible power it will have over us.

Fear itself is not the problem. It is our fear of fear. Our hatred of fear. Our desire to get as far away from fear that becomes a problem. It is our inability to sit with anxiety that leads to the inability to sit with others different than ourselves. It is our hatred of fear that leads to unjustified hatred of others, to othering, to violence, to greed. It is our inability to be intimate with what we are afraid of that squanders away our lives, that keeps us from living, that attempts to keep us and those around us small. Not fear itself.

Now more than ever our personal and collective fear is demanding our attention, our care, our healing, our consciousness. Now more than ever fear is asking for its redemption. If instead we were to listen to fear’s calls, loud as they are now, urgent as they are now…If instead we were to move with compassion into our bodies and our minds and our hearts where our anxiety dwells and get intimate with what is there, we could use fear to heal and protect not just our own life, but all of life.

So during this time of fear, when it grips you in the night or follows you quietly through the day, instead of compulsively reacting to it, why not move gently towards it. What does it feel like, look like, sound like? How old does it feel? Is it you at 5 years old, or 10 or 30? What is it asking of you? What is the deeper fear? What of it is founded? What of it is not? Is part of it coming from an old script, an old wound? What does this part of you truly need? To know you won’t abandon yourself, even if things got hard? To hold tenderly the uncertainty of all things? To find your true center? To find something more secure and real to stand upon? Who in you can sit with this fear, can tolerate it? Who in you cannot?

Photo by Nandhu Kumar on Pexels.com

It is, however, absolutely understandable that we are so afraid of this particular emotion. Because as many who venture into their fears discover, underneath all the anxiety is often a fear of the unknown, and beneath the fear of the unknown, is a fear of death. Being with fear then is an act of the utmost bravery. It means facing some of the most difficult and uncomfortable aspects of being human. Being with fear means being with that delicate and difficult dance between the fight for life and the honouring of death…Our desire to live and an acceptance that we do not live forever, and the great mystery that follows there. But it is in this tension, in the discomfort of our fears that the potential of life can finally fully expand and extend its reach. With no restrictions placed upon it, life can finally breathe and flower and grow. Life can finally live.

While it is true that sometimes our unconscious reaction to fear cuts off life, it is also true then, that a more conscious reaction can do just the opposite. It can bring more life, to not just ourselves but the world as well.

Energy of Number 6

The number 6 vibrates to the energies of ownership, possessions and material wealth, love of home and family, care of others and nurturing, empathy and sympathy, responsibility and selflessness, provision and providing for the self and others. Number 6 signifies the need for stability in all aspects of your life.

The message of Number 6 is to keep a balance between your material goals and aspirations, and your spiritual, inner-self. Be grateful for what you have already, as an ‘attitude of gratitude’ encourages further positive abundance.

Number 6 encourages you to be loving, caring and nurturing of yourself and others.

Spirit of Six: Self-harmony; compassion; love; service; social responsibility; beauty, the Arts; generous; concerned; caring; children; balance; community service.

Influence of Six: Six is a center for harmony and balance, an excellent place for a family, especially with children. Six can contribute to feelings of wanting to help others and community service. Six is also excellent for those wanting to develop their artistic abilities or for nurturing and caring, such as a counselor or medical professional. In a Six it is easy to get to the heart of matters in a caring and compassionate way. Close loving relationships with your partner, roommates, friends and family come to life in a Six. Beautifying a Six as well as the surrounding area will drive those under this influence.

Challenges of a Six: Six is so geared toward giving there may be a tendency to give too much — seek a balance between giving to others and taking care of your own needs. The comfort in a Six may make one reclusive — push yourself out into the wide world!