Grow up...
wake up...
show up...
in the world as...
your unique self
Don't turn away!
Usually when we get angry with someone and when they we feel unfairly treated, our heart contracts and we either lash out and leave or just close off.
Homo Amor can’t stop his heart contracting sometimes but he doesn’t turn away from the person he feels has hurt him. He expresses his pain but stays in contact. Kind of: I am hurting but I still see you, we are still in relationship.
This is so hard to do, our instinct is to turn away.
Love beyond your own tribe
Homo sapiens is essentially ‘ethnocentric’, meaning his circle of care and compassion only extends to his own tribe (race, ethnicity, religion, football club etc.)
Racism, sexism, agism etc are all failures of intimacy as Marc calls them: your love doesn’t go far enough.
HA would embrace the immigrants or refugees with open arms but not blindly, that is naive and has caused a lot of problems.
Something like: “I want to give you a place in my home but you won’t be able to live exactly the way you lived in your own country. I need to show curiosity in you and you need to understand and respect the way we do things here. Maybe just a simple phrase like: You are welcome, come into my house, but you do need to take your shoes off. Admission of immigrants cannot be unconditional.
So we must find a way of portraying this extended heart which includes those who are not from tribe – even rival football clubs!
In touch with the whole
Homo Amor is always aware of a bigger picture.
There’s a wonderful indigenous Indian quote: “Sometimes I walk around in self-pity and all the while a great wind is blowing me across the sky.”
gratitude
Homo Sapiens complains about the treatment she had from her parents.
Homo Amor says: you didn’t get it all right, just as your parents didn’t, but I am eternally grateful for what you did get right, and the rest I will learn from.
