I hope this note finds you safe and well.
All of us at Humanity’s Team are holding love for each and every one of you, and for one another. Every morning we bring our hearts and souls to our home offices so that we can continue to share programs with you that communicate Oneness and Unity.
Just like you, we get up and get to it. And just like you, at the same time that we’re being in service to others, we have personal stories to tell about loss, illness, and despair.
At a recent team support meeting, we talked about resilience — about what it means and how it’s lived. By definition, resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.
Being resilient is how we bounce back and move on.
We all agree that feeling supported by the team and being in close contact with family and friends allows us to be resilient. And that conscious breathing is critical to being able to get through hard times.
Rest and other forms of self-nurturing are vitally important. And perhaps most importantly, remembering who we are is necessary for a loving response in all situations.
I was thinking this morning about a song by Simon and Garfunkel, which was originally released in 1970. Just remembering the song’s title, Bridge Over Troubled Water, brought tears to my eyes as I sat quietly with my affirming prayer, thinking of this stay-at-home situation we’ve all been experiencing for weeks now…
My wife, Stephanie, saw my emotion and asked what was going on.
“I feel proud,” I said. “Proud of humanity.”
When I mentioned the song, she immediately pulled it up on YouTube and we listened together.
“Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.”
These words so powerfully express what’s on my heart today. This is the cry I hear from so many.
“What can I do?”
“How can I help?”
“I want to put others before me!”
Of course, we know that when we do put others before us, there is a boomerang effect and Life, Source, the Divine, shines Love back upon us.
This is because who and what we are IS Life, IS Source, IS the Divine. What we truly are is the highest Good of All.
And who we are is that which shares the highest Good with others.
You might say that the highest Good is synonymous with Love. Who and what we are is Love.
“When you’re down and out
When you’re on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you.”
These words written by Paul Simon express so beautifully the role I feel we were all born to play.
I see it as a role of humility in leadership.
And I see it played out every day in news reports and video clips from all over the world. Even in these troubling times, with literally billions of stories about confusion and hardship, there are billions of people focusing on what’s positive in their lives, what there is to appreciate, and, maybe most importantly, on how they can help.
Will you claim your identity as Divine and, without sacrifice of any kind, offer yourself in service to the world?
Will you lay yourself down?
Let’s remember The Golden Rule found in many sacred texts:
“In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you.” —Matthew 7:12
“The sage has no interest of his own, but takes the interests of the people as his own. He is kind to the kind; he is also kind to the unkind: for Virtue is kind. He is faithful to the faithful; he is also faithful to the unfaithful: for Virtue is faithful. — Tao Te Ching, Ch. 49
My family — Stephanie, our two children Sophie and Dylan (and our dog Sadie) — are certainly feeling the strain of this long-lasting stay-at-home policy. We’re a family that loves being together, but we’re also people who’ve grown accustomed to “having our own lives.”
And in so many ways, those individual lives have been interrupted. Our family is a microcosm of what’s happening across our beloved planet. The challenge of these times is palpable and in many ways brings forth compassion and spiritual activism.
But without resilience, our emotions can easily turn into impatience, resignation, and even hopelessness.
Having resilience, being flexible and buoyant, allows us to get through these days with not only hope but also faith in the goodness of All and in the knowing that together we are making a better world.
Thank you for sharing this moment with me.
Love,
Steve
Steve Farrell
Worldwide Executive Director
Humanity’s Team
P.S. For your listening pleasure, here’s a link to Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel
P.P.S. Thanks to Dan Meyers at Unsplash for his wonderful photo.
