Today and everyday is a day to let our souls speak their mission and stretch into the future and develop a practice of vision.

Expand yourself no matter what your circumstance and remember as Rilke wrote to live the question.

WHY AM I HERE?

Beyond the glitz and glamour and the who is wearing what and why, beyond the business, the promotions ($75,000 gift bag – I’m looking at you) and the who wins and loses are the deeply held stories and the lives that are shared with a global audience opening up doors of inspiration and shedding light on what we on the planet need to remember.

“Each of You Who Know The Joy of Freedom are Winners.”

Gerda Weissmann Klein’s Oscar® acceptance speech for the documentary “One Survivor Remembers” chronicling her six years living with the horror of Nazi encampment offers up an open hearted expression of grace.

“I have been in a place for six incredible years where winning meant a crust of bread and to live another day. Since the blessed day of my liberation I have asked the question why am I here? I am no better.”

The beauty in this survivor’s story and Gerda’s sharing is that she reminds us in the face of outlasting unimaginable hardness and evil, there is open ness and there is Love.

“In my mind’s eye I see those years and faces of those who never lived to see the magic of a boring evening at home. On their behalf I want to thank you for honoring their memory. And you cannot do it in any better way than when you return to your homes tonight to realize that each of you who know the joy of freedom are winners. Thank you on their behalf with all my heart.”

Forgiveness does not mean forgetting it means transforming the anger and releasing that which can no longer torture you. That which is in the past. Because it doesn’t exist and can no longer hurt you. It means honoring yourself, your history, and those who have touched your life by living yours in full emblem of the truest space of a Loving heart.

Freedom is the foundation of strength and joy and as Gerda so beautifully puts it, contains the magic of choice. The choice to spend a boring evening at home and to honor each other with Love. Something that should never be taken for granted.

When the sun breaks through the darkness of a new day we get to give thanks for the joys of freedom and abundance we do have and to extend love to those we encounter. If you are tempted by the blues, and we all are, it is part of the human condition, or drawn into believing in the fear, be gentle with yourself and remember we have all been given a choice, a choice to see the Love in whatever situation we find ourselves in. When you are loving to yourself the hurts and blues and depressions become bare-able, and when the question comes up “Why Am I Here?” one answer you can count on is to shine your light as brightly and lovingly as possible.

Like Richard Harris at the end of Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot (the musical retelling of the story of the legend of King Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot) when realizing the battle is lost, pulls a young soldier from the battlefield to send him out into the world to tell the story of this place where freedom and joy and grace lived and breathed.

Ask every person if he’s heard the story

And tell it strong and clear if he has not

That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory called Camelot

Don’t let it be forgot

That once there was a spot

A brief and shining moment

For happy ever aftering

That was known as Camelot

We are here to extend Love on the planet. To act in Love and to be Loving. Nothing more is required. As this years Oscar awards© fade into memory let us remember together the part each of us plays in our own award winning dramas.

With the proliferation of technology and the advancement of weaponry to destroy it is clear there is one path through… Remembering the truth. Peace is your responsibility and Love Remains the Answer.

“One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas.”

— Victor Hugo from his History of Crime “

Leave the past behind and open up to different thinking; where peaceful ideas are our imagination’s new army.

Watch Gerda’s acceptance speech here…

Excerpted from Melanie Lutz presents Mel’s Love Land an expression of the soul outstretching from the heart.  Lots of Love, Mel