As so many of us, I was conditioned to feel that giving love was better than receiving love – that receiving was somehow selfish – but during my time at SAND Italy all of that changed.
Asoulafire, a gifted young artist, performed the songs she wrote, and between songs mentioned the significance of giving and receiving love. My ears perked up when I heard that. And then she mentioned that her friend, Riccardo, had a birthday today and as everyone sang happy birthday he stood up, turned around in the front row and fully received the love we were sending him.
His expression and body were fully open, without any hint of embarrassment or anxiety. He did not shrink from the love. He was completely open in the receiving – and it was as if an immense energy of love washed back to me and I almost started to sob.
The receiving is the giving. The giving is the receiving. How can it not be? The One dancing with the One in a flow of giving and receiving, receiving and giving.
Each moment is such an opening to receive love…and to give. The woman walking across the courtyard, the sound of the insects, the one I see in the mirror, the birds, the man scratching the back of his wife, the living planet under my feet, the eyes of the one I am walking past, the heart of the one who is speaking to me – all such a gift of beauty and love to receive, to fully, unabashedly receive…and to give.
After my time at SAND, the name of my website felt incomplete – not wrong, but just not full. Although ‘Peace is the Universal Song’ still rings true to me – this song allows the sweetness of Love to work its way into our very cells and then to dance, dance, dance.
From a young age, Dhyana Stanley, felt there had to be a better way of living here than what she and others knew. After many years of searching within organized religion and then many more outside of religion, deep suffering led to an intense urge to find the truth of life. She was convinced that there had to be a universal truth and that this truth would impact how she lived. After a profound shift of understanding and years of integration, she holds small gatherings in Maine and meets with people individually in person and on Skype. She is the author of The Human Experience is the Dance of Heaven and Earth. www.dhyanastanley.com
