{"id":78,"date":"2022-11-04T05:43:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T05:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/?p=78"},"modified":"2022-11-04T05:43:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T05:43:23","slug":"where-is-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/04\/where-is-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is Love?"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<header>Last week in our Spirit Play class we told the story of the Good Samaritan. \u00a0I love this version of our story as the end is a reflection about who was a good neighbor. \u00a0The character of the traveler is shown. \u00a0\u201cWho was the neighbor to this one?\u201d \u00a0We don\u2019t stop there though, I held up the picture of one of the characters who had beaten the traveler. \u00a0\u201cWho was the neighbor to this one?\u201d \u00a0And I held up one of the people who walked by on the other side of the road. \u00a0\u201cWho was the neighbor to this one? \u00a0We happened to have several visitors in our class on Sunday so we got to practice together. \u00a0How were we neighbors to our new friends? \u00a0How were we neighbors to each other?<\/p>\n<p>As we often say in our congregation, \u201cThere are no other people\u2019s children\u201d. \u00a0We belong to each other. \u00a0We are all people\u2019s children. \u00a0We all are unique in the world and carry a gift in us that is only ours to give. \u00a0How can we more clearly see this in all people? \u00a0I have been sitting with this all week. \u00a0Who is the neighbor to the person on the side of the road asking for money? \u00a0Who is the neighbor of all of the women in our country stepping forward with stories of disrespect and violation? \u00a0And we can\u2019t stop there. \u00a0Who is the neighbor of those men? Love is not an either or. \u00a0At it\u2019s best love is a generous unconditional flowing that overspills itself with kindness, humility, openness and restraint. \u00a0Love can see the truth of where we shine and where we wound one another, and call us into more. \u00a0It does not condone our acts of wounding, but expands compassion to move us to amends, toward reconciliation, to new life. \u00a0This kind of love is a discipline and a compelling invitation.<\/p>\n<p>Any time we see others with judgement, it is an opportunity to grow and learn where our hurt is and how to heal it. \u00a0Any time we can point to \u201cthose other people\u201d it is an invitation to expose our own belief in separation and begin to heal it by listening with humility to what is going on inside us. \u00a0 Who is the neighbor to the judged? \u00a0Who is the neighbor to the one holding judgement? \u00a0We are called to be neighbor to both, to grow our love and compassion to hold both and to hold a possibility for something new to emerge that binds us into the creative work of bolstering belonging and the beloved community.<\/p>\n<p>This work begins in us. \u00a0Are we an advocate of love and healing? \u00a0Where is love in this place? \u00a0In this person? \u00a0In this situation? \u00a0Who is the neighbor to my own heart? \u00a0Can I count myself as a loving advocate in my own quest for embodying love? \u00a0When I harm others, what does love call me to?<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<\/article>\n<section>\n<header>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week in our Spirit Play class we told the story of the Good Samaritan. \u00a0I love this version of our story as the end is a reflection about who was a good neighbor. \u00a0The character of the traveler is shown. \u00a0\u201cWho was the neighbor to this one?\u201d \u00a0We don\u2019t stop there though, I held up the picture of one of the characters who had beaten the traveler. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/80"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}