This little four-line poem from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, written approximately 1,000 years ago, says so much about staying focused on love:
Ah, love! could thou and I with fate conspire
To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits—and then
Re-mould it nearer to the heart’s desire!
On the fateful day of September 11, 2001, what stuck in my mind were the cell-phone calls made by the people on the ill-fated planes. Every single call was made to a loved one, to connect back in love or to express final words of love. No one called the office or asked their stockbroker for a final appraisal of their financial status, as relationships that weren’t love based didn’t enter the thoughts of those who knew they were leaving this physical world. Their top priority was to be certain to close out their lives in love: “Tell the kids that I love them.” “I love you!” “Give Mom and Dad my love.”
Just as love is the priority in the final moments of life, so it must be as we simplify life now. We can go toward a clearer life by examining and purifying our relationship with those we love, and with ourselves. What we’re looking for are connections that keep us in an energy of love, which is the highest and fastest energy in the Universe.
Love is also incredibly healing, which reminds me of an article I recently read. Called “The Rescuing Hug,” it detailed the first week in the life of a set of twins, one of whom wasn’t expected to live. The babies were in two separate incubators, but nurse Gayle Kasparian fought hospital rules to place them together in one. When Gayle did so, the healthier of the twins threw an arm over her sister in an endearing embrace — at which point, the weaker baby’s heart rate stabilized and her temperature rose to normal.
Even as tiny infants, our spiritually based instincts tell us to love one another. It’s such a simple message, yet it’s so powerful. If we organize our life around love— for ourselves, for family and friends, for all humankind, and for the environment—we’ll remove a lot of the chaos and disorder that defines our life. This is a way to simplify our life, but more than that, it’s a way to attract inspiration.
