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I’ve
had a trumpet sitting on my shelf for years and had never taken an actual blow.
But, one day, I was commissioned to paint six paintings. I was paid very well
and had everything set, materials and all. I was creatively out of rhythm and
could not bring myself to paint no matter what I tried. I turned to the trumpet, removed it from the
wall, walked up the block to a music school, and received a lesson. There is
something about an artist and the rhythm felt when doing something he or she
thinks, “Maybe I can’t do it.” And then they do it. This feeling freed me and
gave me the power to paint six of my favorite works. At the time, I didn’t realize I was learning
more than how to make a sound through a piece of brass. I was learning a lesson
of love.
…
The first lesson learned as I began to
play the trumpet was the value in maintaining 1/4 (one quarter) of a tank. When
playing the horn, this is used in reference to having a 1/4 tank of air in your
lungs. But in life, I view this as
always having a quarter tank of love to give ourselves enough energy to keep us
in stable positions to help others love.
Some people are constantly running on
empty or just burning fumes. Still others become obsessed with always keeping a
full tank and never giving off any fuel. Either extreme leads to unhealthy
living. It is important to burn some fuel and give love and not expect anything
in return. It is equally important to be aware that our fuel gages are not set
for selfish motivations but for purely unselfish motives of knowing that we
have enough fuel to produce to give to others.
Often, I feel we have to strengthen
our acute vision in order to have proper gauges on our self-love. This
inaccuracy can lead to the misperception and misuse of the content sitting
within our tanks. What should be left is
a 1/4 tank of self-love.
Unhealthy influences, whether internal or external, make one feel as if
this 1/4 tank is of self-guilt, self-fear, self-hate, self-pity, and so on.
Love is the natural content in our spirit. Anything else is a figment of the
imagination.
So if a 1/4 tank is allocated to
self-love, then what is the other 3/4 of the tank to be used for? Well, 1/4
is to be used for our love for nature and all that has blessed us. For
example, the power to heal has blessed us, as has the power to feel and witness
growth. This 1/4 of a tank can show us the power of the indiscriminate,
unpredictable miracles we live beside.
The next 1/4 is allocated to our
love for humanity, whether it is the youth of our own friends and family or
the youth of this world, the adults of our own friends and family, or other
adults of this world, as well as the elders of our friends, family, and other
elders in this world. This 1/4 of a tank for the love of humanity as we see can
it be grouped into nine categories of humans. If we can use this 1/4 of a tank
to reach all nine groups, then the path toward happiness will be one with less
effort and obstacles. These nine groups
will all become one, and you will be at one using your natural spirit for your
being.
And this leads me to the next 1/4 of a
tank. This ever so important 1/4
should be used for our value, respect, gratitude, and love for spirituality. How we may see this spirituality whether it’s
a particular religion, creator, or just a belief system which helps us be in
touch with the overall existence of our reality in the past, present, and
future.
Now, I have described all four tanks.
So what do we have? We have the feelings
we all enjoy, four safe places to put our love. All of our loves are 1/4 in
size, and four quarters makes a hole, so now we can be “Holy.” The tank is full, and there is no room for
anything “less than love.”
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