Pure Love

Oftentimes when yogis engage in their practice, we set an intention before we begin.  This could be anything from focusing on a mantra, like Om, sending positive thoughts to someone we love, or reminding ourselves to come back to the present when our thoughts stray.  Yesterday, like nearly every day since arriving in Gili, I attended a yoga session taught by my dear friend Kate Middleton who teaches Freediving and yoga at Freedive Gili/Gili Yoga.  As we started the class, sitting on our mats, silent, eyes closed, and breathing, Kate asked us to set an intention for our practice.  I skipped through a few in my mind – judgment, presence, Om – until I landed on Pure Love.  Just the thought of it, just the two simple words in that perfect succession made me smile, and no sooner did I set my intention of Pure Love that the little white kitten who often hangs around the shop walked straight over to my mat and started purring and squeaking.  So I smiled and laughed and loved her until she’d had enough and moved on to another yogi.

Pure Love carried me through that yoga session.  Every time my thoughts strayed to what I did that day or whether the girl next to me was more flexible than I, I radiated love from my core to everything.  Every cute little kitten, every yogi in the room, everyone I’ve ever known in my life, everyone I have yet to meet and the ones I may never have the privilege of knowing.  And invariably, my face would break out in a huge, goofy, uncontainable smile that lasted for a solid hour and a half!  I have never experienced a more blissful yoga session, but I hope to experience many more like it.

I know it’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, but I truly believe that sending pure, unselfish love to all beings in this universe as often as we can is not only the best way to exist, but the only way in which we can all learn to coexist and maybe even heal each other.  If I spend every fiber of my being loving you without expectation, you will eventually find that you have no reason to hate me or judge me or misunderstand me.  Some people call this concept God – the Biblical version who could theoretically unify us all, but I call it simply Pure Love.  It is the intrinsic, fundamental element that flows through us all, that unites us all, and that we must find and foster in order to find the God within us.

So thank you everyone.  Thank you for existing so that I may love you eternally.

Namaste and Pure Love,

Jackie