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The Living Years
Sunday 9 June 2013: it was early in the morning. I was driving through the beautiful Coventry country lanes, when I heard The Living Years on my car radio. I was full of tears when I heard the words, “I wasn't there that morning, when my father passed away, I didn't get to tell him all the things I had to say.... I just wish I could have told him in the living years”.
These emotional and powerful words are very poignant and meaningful for me. On 5 February 2012 I was in Vienna, attending a meeting when I heard that my father had passed away in Niagara Falls, Canada. I was away from home and my family. My friends in Vienna helped to arrange my return home to Coventry. I had much time on my hand. Many thoughts were going through my head. One lesson I learnt was to realise that life is so unpredictable, so fast and rapidly changing. Thus, what is the best we can do? What is the best we can say?
On those lonely moments at Vienna airport, I came, more than ever to realise that:
“As spiritual beings having a human experience, we are all connected in the web of life. Your ability to create reality is the same as mine. The same spark of life that animates life in you is also the one that brings life to me. That spark is love. It is consciousness itself. It is found within the heart center of our being and transcends our ego and intellectual definition.
Ultimately, there is nothing to seek or become, rather a truth to unfold. Through this conscious recognition of the love we have within, we can realize dreams of a brighter world filled with what our heart craves. Love is who we really are. It is what each of us secretly searches for in the deepest reaches of our psyche. Love is the power source of our very being and brings reason to an otherwise chaotic creation born as the result of the separation from love.
Simple idea, yet who of us remembers this in our daily routine? When the challenges and problems seem insurmountable and obstacles appear at every turn, how easy is it to think of the bigger picture of love? When fear and doubt has us in its grip, how do we recall that it is just an illusion and that only love is real? This is the duality we create every day through our thoughts and feelings. We allow our mind to focus on the outer appearance rather than the inner love and guidance that already exists. Yet, there it is, waiting to be recognized and released. It is time to bring this love to the surface of our own awareness and realize its potential to transform our lives.
Love is experienced when it is shared with others unconditionally. We know love when we give love, not the other way around. Approaching life in this fashion places us back on the right side of life. Rather than expecting something to come to us, we recognize our divine right to express the love we are. This is the way we come to know and experience unconditional love.” -(Harold W. Becker)
So, please let us remember that, whilst life might seem too busy and too hectic, let us not forget to say “I love you”.
And now listen to the Living Years: