Use Words If Needed

The year was 1984 and I was a first-year teacher trying to

figure out who I was so that I could make sense of the world.

We like to call that self-actualizing, and it's so important.

My counselor at the time suggested I read The Handbook To Higher Consciousness, and here we are, some forty years later, and I still have that mantra etched on my heart. You see, in the handbook, author Ken Keyes suggested we repeat the words All Ways Us Living Love by putting the stress or emphasis on a different word with each recitation. So, first it's ALL ways us living love, then it's All WAYS us living love, and so on. 

Spoken quietly or aloud, these five words would center and ground me.

They spoke directly to me, maybe because my Dad always said:

Share the gospel; use words if needed.

So what does it look like to live love ... without words?

It looks like my friend and former teaching partner, Christine, 

coming by with a bouquet of flowers and a visit this week,

because she knew it was the anniversary of Mark's passing.

It looks like picking up the phone and listening in

as a friend vents about losing a job they loved.

It looks like putting a card in the mail for your friend's dad,

because he's battling some serious health challenges right now.

It looks like writing Thank You or Hugs! on that Starbucks cup.

It looks like offering to write an endorsement for someone's new book.

It looks like sending a soothing song to the person it reminds you of.

It looks like a text that simply says: Thinking of you and smiling.

Ok, ok, some of those things involve words; you're not wrong,

but the idea is that you make empathy, compassion,

kindness and love a lifestyle, not just words on a wall.

So let's move that ideal to a business model:

Empathy as a policy since 1907.

Better yet, a practice!

Imagine my delight to stumble on this company,

a place where empathy doesn't only matter,

but drives how they do business.

It's their self-actualizing mantra.

Which is perfect, because empathy is

often quiet, with no words necessary.

But to the person receiving the

empathy, the compassion,

the kindness, the love,

it's not quiet at all.

In fact, it's loud!

With or without words.

What's your favorite way to live love, dear reader?