Mel’s President’s Day sharing from Mels Love Land: Consider the Possibility There is Another Way includes excerpts of speeches from two past Presidents, Lyndon B. Johnson and Abraham Lincoln.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Compassionate positioning means creating a stance where you are able to be in a space of compassion and Love and look into the eyes of those who are suffering and feel their suffering without losing your center. When you know your own center, you are in stillness with the truest space of your being allowing you to understand in every situation the space you are holding, and from that space you remember your job is to extend Love. You are not taking on another’s karma, you are merely dealing with your own, and in your knowing of this one detail, you allow other people to grow into their knowing.
From one of my favorite speeches by a President, Lyndon B. Johnson, before a joint session of Congress on voting rights, one of our most basic tools of democracy.
“In our time we have come to live with moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues; issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. Rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes
and the meaning of our beloved Nation. The issue of equal rights (for American Negroes.)
And should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For with a country as with a person, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
with these words, in the deepest reaches of our inner power, move into the experience of full and equal human rights around the planet. Lyndon B. Johnson did not “win” the Presidency, he ascended to the office due to the horrific assassination of President Kennedy. Johnson understood that one man doesn’t “make” human rights changes, he merely steps into the space of truth and offers it for review, so the people, all the people, can move into a higher thought pattern, a space of humanity above the “battlefield” and petty tyrannies of fear. He stood in the breach as a bridge of understanding and a meeting place of compassion.
In getting to know the full extent of the accordances of your authentic self, holding the intention to be free of fearful illusions of harm, living in full harmony and equality with the truth, you create a space of freedom by your example for all brothers to step into in the light of Love.
AWAKEN “THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE”
From the last line of the last paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address delivered one hundred and fifty plus years ago March 4, 1861 as tensions between the North and South were exploding and Civil war was imminent.
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
All great speeches share one common thread, the ability to divine the truth creating space for the eternal. The words may change. The times may be different, but, in the stirring of the heart a great speech gives birth to the openness of possibility and in that openness we are given a choice, a choice to be moved by a higher vibrational experience into action leading spirit ever forward with faith and grace extending Love to all souls across the planet.
Because of his ability to stand in the face of insurmountable and daunting circumstances and deliver statements like “right makes might” because he was able to be a healing agent over a country deeply divided.
Abraham Lincoln has long captured the imagination of the world and the reasons why are obvious.
He was a true statesman.
He was a leader standing on the cusp of an uncertain future.
He was a researcher who understood a sense of the common defense.
He presided over a war that pitted brother against brother.
He attempted to tide the rift of a long fought battle and seemingly
overwhelming differences of opinion.
He delivered the United States into a new era.
In all the drafts of his speech Abraham Lincoln included a confrontational pointedly aggressive statement addressed at the South that he removed when he delivered the speech. The final line of the Inaugural was to have read….
“Shall it be peace or sword?
The result remains the same – the truth will shine through. The choice is yours how you get there.
Move into the “angels of our better nature” and rewrite any operating manual that isn’t based in Love, that doesn’t include a daily practice of acceptance of yourself and those around you.
LOVING THOUGHTS TO REMEMBER
Our actions and thoughts always have consequences. Make your thoughts and actions count. Make them Loving. Look at what you are plugging into, what you are putting your energy towards and from what space in your being it emanates. Is it from your head or your heart? Is it fear or is it Love? Is it bringing you peace or making you crazy? When the scripture says “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” It speaks directly to the emotions that create the rubble of our lives.
Let go of the pride and fear and ask yourself “If I look at this situation with Love — what is the truth?”
Allow patience acceptance and love to flow through you, offering the cornerstone in your psyche necessary for forgiveness, creating sustained inner peace nourishing every aspect of your being.
May we all enjoy peace of mind, Love, harmony with the past present and future creating space for what is next.
Love, Mel
Mel Lutz is a writer and Love Activist living in Los Angeles CA.