Love is the Substrate

Magick from my morning of loving the world

I woke up and for some reason felt inspired with a quiet but insistent urge to head over to one of our walkable coffee shops on the early side. Shining out from between trees and rooftops on my way, the sun was like a brilliant golden portal, welcoming light, welcoming love.

On my way I over I chalked love messages for the kids (and adults who are kid at heart) on the sidewalk as the children in my neighborhood made their way to the local elementary school. One little boy almost ran me over on his bike as I was writing, but I leapt out the way in time. "Kindness." His dad said, "sidewalks can be dangerous these days." I said, "That's okay, kindness is getting savvy." That was just after I had said hello to a woman whose dog's name is Roxie, who once came to my door to do her best to persuade me to vote. Instead, we ended up having a great conversation about gardens and how everyone is welcome in my garden as long as they come in a spirit of goodwill, wanting good thing for everyone. I gave her a sunflower. I still didn't vote. I affirmed to her, and others who hold her view that there is a lesser of two evils, that although I don't think that is the case, I also believe that as we open our eyes to the full scale of corruption, those who are inside the system can bust it open with love and integrity from the inside out. If I shine my light from the outside in and she shines her light from the inside out...the system doesn't stand a chance. It just might take a while.

I pet Roxie the dog and asked after her. "Roxie is always good," she answered.

"Happy Love Day" I said to her, smiling with the sky in my heart and meeting it in her eyes. 

"It's your day," Isn't it, she said. 

"Everyday is a good day for love," I said. She replied, "Then everyday is love day, then isn't it? Or at least it should be," She replied.

"It's always love day, we just forget sometimes. This is just my thing, but I believe love is the substrate of the universe. It's always there. We may sometimes lose touch with it, but never loses touch with us."

"And a good thing too!" She said, as we both grinned from our shared heart, and I stopped to tie my shoe.

At the coffee shop I paid it forward for two strangers - something I used to do often but haven't done much recently since I've been in hiding more or less and more recently, poking my head out but mostly with my hubby.

It made the day of the two young women working there, both of whom said last Valentine's Day people were exceptionally rude, and in the case of one of the young women, inappropriate. They said they were so appreciative to be off to a good start and that everyone has been really kind today.

May you experience kindness today. Whatever last year was for you, may you experience kindness this year, and always.

I chatted with a man I used to be friends with years ago and caught up on a few things – from kids to why we are both no longer like Tulsi Gabbard and when he said, "I'm not a globalist," I replied, "I love the whole world. That's why I'm not a globalist." He is ex military and went with Veterans for Peace to Stand at Standing Rock. He didn’t know about the Doctrine of Discovery. Now he does.

When my Mocha was ready, just before I headed out the door, a lovely older man with peaceful energy approached me and said, "You don't know me, but thank you. You made my day." I had given the barista full license to choose recipients for my little gesture gifted coffees. I was so glad it was him.

Hubby and I went out for a a love breakfast and a Rose Mocha yesterday and he'll home on break to kiss me. I wrote him a poem and gave it to him this morning as he stepped out of the shower.

On my way home from the coffee shop, my neighbor was just pulling in. I felt led to pause and stare at the huge pine at the corner between our yards. We’ve had different views on pretty much everything, but much like the woman who came to ask me to vote, when we’ve gotten underneath it all, we’ve found common ground in our hearts. The war in Ukraine caused the most distance between us because he has a flag pole and he loves to fly his Ukraine flag, and I literally hurt in my heart when I look at it. Maybe it’s my epigenetics, which I now realize have been impacted by the generational traumas I’ve carried, including the holocaust, as well as my grandfather’s experience fighting at Normandy and my mother’s sexual abuse. Fortunately, we can heal our epigenetics with things like meditation, EFT, silence and love. We can even talk to our cells and feel them release what we inherited, but is not ours.

I have had Ukrainian and Russian friends over the years, however, I hurt in my heart when I see that flag flown here in the US, symbolizing supporting death for both peoples while elites play with lives. Additionally, most of my relatives on my dad’s side were killed in the Holocaust at the hands of Ukranian Nationalists, and while I don’t buy that Putin is an enlightened guy, neither do I believe Zelensky is a friend in need, when I know who funded him, all the way from his TV show through his Presidency. War profits the elite and the eugenecists and no one else, in my opinion.

During the Pandemic, our families had opposite views about “measures,” yet that did not deter friendship. In fact, this neighbor gave me a painting and I burst out sobbing, having felt so isolated and on my own in a liberal community having views that didn’t match on topics related to how to deal with what we were facing, which in my opinion was more about a grab for control over our views and bodies than about protecting one another in love. His family was very into the conventional views, but we refused to demonize one another, having witnessed one another’s basic goodness as neighbors for about ten years. This is the same neighbor to whom we gave a snowblower last year, and whose children I taught to love instead of squash the bees. His boys are the ones who said my son, who when they were smaller, would often be a peaceful presence and an arbiter during four square or football squabbles related to cheating versus fairness, “is the most honest man you’ll find.” In short, although we give each other a good deal of space for our differences, we know one another’s hearts as good, and occasionally we have short, super deep conversations. One of those occurred just have Oct 7th, when I felt led to call out to this neighbor as he was doing yardwork. “Hey did you know that I was born in a Sufi Commune and my dad is Jewish?”

My neighbor is used to my quirkiness, having seen me stare at trees and sky on various corners, dance down the street and mention geeky things in the same breath as Spirit whenever we do on occasion discuss anything of importance, which are the only times we do more than smile and wave.

“Hey did you know that I was born in a Sufi Commune and my dad is Jewish?”

How would you respond if someone said this to you after October 7th?

My neighbor paused his yard work, leaned on his tool (I think it was a shovel) and asked,

How are you doing? with full presence. It helps that he mostly likes to be on the water in his boat, he is a sensitive guy who is devoted to his wife and his boys and when he goes to work, he is a social worker. But how many people respond right, like that, in the moment?

“I’m heartbroken,” I said, tearing up. But I am glad I chose the circumstanes of my birth, regardless of how dysfunctional my family was, so that I could be a voice for peace in this moment.”

I asked if he would fly a peace flag for me. He asked what kind I wanted, and I said one with the world and a dove, maybe.

On Valentine’s Day 2024, four months and one week later, I was led to pause by his huge pine today, once he was outside of his vehicle, I did as my guidance instructed and simply asked, “When are you going to fly a peace flag for me?”

“I haven’t forgotten. I haven’t gotten it yet, but I’m thinking about it.” I smiled and wished him a wonderful day and thought to myself how the world really is full of love.

Here is the painting. And the top of the tree that wisely guards neighborliness and lovingkindness.

Cont:

March 2, 2024

There is a moon out, behind the big tree

of my neighbors

That looks like a hunk of crystal glowing

gold

And I can’t see it but I know it

A commitment to peace has become a new kind of bold

And what a beautiful story to be told

Of neighbors with different sensibilities

In these past 4 and change years of old

And what will cross this divide inside

That is put there from the outside

There is a moon out, behind the big tree

of my neighbors

That looks like a hunk of crystal glowing

gold

And what crosses this divide is the heart

I’m told

And I can’t see it but I know it

A commitment to peace has become a new kind of bold

And what a beautiful story to be told

I came out one day in late February, after a week that felt like a hot water scold

There are times I want to give up

And I’m always glad that I simply won’t

When I stepped out that day in late February finding it stay

Something caught my eye

Something way up high

Something that made me so glad I put a stake in the ground

On the ground of my life’s offering to be here even when the matrix’ sound

Seems so hard to bare

I looked up to the sky

And saw flying high

A PEACE flag with dove on a blue background with white stripes

Gentle and powerful, Brilliant and Strong

That FLAG in the wind, was singing my song, and it’s a song for all of us

Beyond all that’s been so wrong

A song of peace, and neighborly love

And song that ends division

Births new vision

Beyond corruption, beyond derision, PEACE is a power

That cannot be tokenized, bought or manipulated

When it comes not from compromise but from Truly

Loving One’s Neighbor as Oneself

And although it came down for a day when the wind blew very hard

The other day I went out, again on intuition from my soul

And saw, not far from the yard

Misty the dog

And my neighbor too

And I asked him if could hug him and thanked him for all that it meant to be me through and through

And he received my hug and my thanks and said he would put it back up, observing kindly, “I should have done it way sooner.”

And I said, “The timing was perfect. It reminded me I’m not alone, that invisible forces love me in moments where it can be difficult to that knowledge to incline, so I’m not one to argue with the timing of the divine!”

May your heart be full of love!

May your step be merry and light!

Choose to shine your love-light ever so bright!

Blessings and love!

Alicia Kwon

2024