Loving Kindness

     I listened to a meditation CD by Jon Kabat-Zinn which was about Loving Kindness.  I had not heard of this term before, but found pleasure in hearing these two words together.  His voice is so soft when he speaks, and when he says "loving kindness", you can feel that this is something very special.  It starts out that you extend loving kindness to yourself, for all who you are.  Then, he asks that you go into your past and think of someone who made you happy and extend loving kindness to that person.  (I had no trouble thinking of my Nana, whom I loved very much, and who made dolls, apple pies and fudge)  Then, he asked to think of someone who was not kind to us, and extend loving kindness to that person.  Well, I have to admit, I was ready to open my eyes at that point, and part of me was tempted to say, "I am not giving any loving kindness to that person, they don't deserve it!".  But, I brought myself back to listening to his words and I succumbed to the task and thought of someone who wronged me and gave loving kindness, realizing that we are all human, capable of making mistakes, and it hurts my soul to hold onto anything that is not love.  We moved onto the present, finding someone who is important to us to give loving kindness, then, we also had to find someone in our present who has hurt is, and I signed and thought, "Not this person, I don't want to think about this person!", but, again, I succumbed to the task and it was over quickly.  After awhile, we were asked to send loving kindness out to our family, friends, our community, our country, then the whole world, then the whole universe.  These were all thoughts I had never had before, and it was amazing to think that my loving kindness was going anywhere, but I have to believe that the energy of my thoughts was making a difference, if only to myself.
     Very quickly, I looked on the web about loving kindness and I found that author Sharon Salzberg wrote a book entitled Loving Kindness, (imagine you can write a book about two words?) and I will add her quote:
"We can open to everything with the healing force of love. When we feel love, our mind is expansive and open enough to include the entirety of life in full awareness, both its pleasure and its pains. We feel neither betrayed by pain nor overcome by it, and thus we can contact that which is undamaged within us regardless of the situation."

      I studied calligraphy a few years ago, I thoroughly enjoy the art of letter making and am amazed at the beauty of the art created by just writing words.  I would like to create something someday using the words loving kindness, when I do, you will know!  I will conclude by saying, on Valentine's Day today, that I am going to close my eyes briefly as I write (or after I write) and extend loving kindness out into the world of my blog to my audience, and, when you are done reading, if you could do the same and sending it back to me. Thank you, my audience, have a wonderful Valentine's Day!