Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

This blog is updated weekly with a Thought for the Week, Inspirational Quotes and News about Ed P and his Pictures. To make sure you don’t miss anything, type in your email address in the Subscribe panel on the right. 
Thanks for visiting and please leave a comment on anything that stirs your imagination.

Spiritual Tree

This is a very rough sketch of a concept I'm trying to develop. The idea is that as we live our lives in this outer world (the roots of the tree) our inner side (the trunk and branches of the tree) a developing. The struggle we go though in life has a spiritual benefit within us.

How to love what you do and do what you love

Thought for the week

If we can spend our lives doing what we love and loving what we do we will have a heavenly life. Whether it is cleaning the streets, rearing children, trying to find a job, running a company or working for charity. Whatever we do, if we can do our tasks or work with love we will be happier and so will the people we come in contact with.

Not everything we do is going to be lovable, so how do we do the challenging things in life with love? There is a benefit to doing all kinds of difficult jobs. If we are cleaning drains there is a benefit to the places which use the drain. They will have no problems with waste water or sewage when we clear the drain. We are doing it to be of service to others. Being of service is a way of giving love.

How to love somebody who doesn't like us?
Another challenging situation we often face is dealing with people who we perceive as difficult. How do we love somebody who doesn't like us? One way is to see them as Soul, just like us, struggling to find love. At this time they may be in pain of some sort and are sharing that with those who they think deserve it. We can try to stay clear of them but when we have to deal with them we should try and keep our emotions in check. Be of the attitude that their comments are not aimed at us but a reflection of how they are themselves.

A comment like “You are worthless, useless and of no benefit to anyone”, reflects the person's own inner fears that they are worthless. By accusing others they feel that they are not alone in being worthless. They have brought us into the same space as they are. With this insight we can begin to rise above their accusations and/or abuse. We should try and avoid an emotional reaction and leave them to deal with their own fears. If we work for such an individual, we can just do the work they require of us but ignore the verbal abuse. Our non reactive and practical reactions will help them see that there is no use in being so negative and aggressive in their approach to people.

How to love what we do?
If we are in a difficult situation, how do we move to a position of love? It may seem impossible from our current viewpoint but if we take little steps we can climb out of our darkness into the light. These little steps could be:
Ask friends or colleagues how we can improve things.
Look for the good in a situation or person.
Focus on the positive, beneficial or enjoyable elements.
Find something nice, no matter how small it is and focus on it.
Look around us and see the goodness, the love, the facilities, the beauty, of the people and things around us. Count our blessings.
Ask someone who is happy in a similar position how to love the situation

How to love our lives more
There are a number of questions we can ask ourselves if we want to bring more love into our lives.
What would I love to do?
What would I love to work at?
What would I love to spend my free time doing?
Who would I love to be with?
What would I love to achieve, today, this week, this month, this year, this lifetime?

Take time to answer these questions and write down our thoughts. We can change them later when we come up with better ideas but having them in writing helps bring it out of our mind and into this worldly reality. It gives us a target or goal to focus on. Love is the purpose of our life and that will take shape in the things we do and the way we deal with the other Souls around us. Love what we do provided what we do doesn't interfere with other Souls.

Another way of bring love into our lives is the ask ourselves the question “What would Love do now?” This can be useful when we are not sure of how to love a situation. If we can give love to what we are doing at any given moment, we will benefit from its grace and so will those around us.

Wishing you Love now and for all the nows to come.

*Ed Parkinson

For more ideas on how to love, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

How to Love Quotes

“As we give of ourselves, of our patience and love, to someone else who needs it more, something changes inside us. Something flows in, a flow of good feeling. A spiritual upliftment occurs both in us and in the person receiving the love.”
Harold Klemp

“True love doesn't come to you, it has to be inside you.”
Julia Roberts

“I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.”
Roy Croft

“Love isn't finding a perfect person. It's seeing an imperfect person perfectly.”
Sam Keen

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
Morrie Schwartz

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
Mother Teresa

“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
Robert Heinlein

“Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.”
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.”
Barbara De Angelis

“Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.”
 Franklin P. Jones 

“Love me when I least deserve it, because that's when I really need it.”
Swedish Proverb

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
Dr. Seuss

“The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.”
Jalal ad-Din Rumi

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”
Thomas Merton

“People love others not for who they are but for how they make them feel.”
Irwin Federman

“Love is shown in your deeds, not in your words.”
Fr. Jerome Cummings

“Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.”
Lao Tzu

“Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.”
Jules Renard

“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
James Arthur Baldwin

“Pure love is a willingness to give without a thought of receiving anything in return.”
Peace Pilgrim

“We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.”
Tom Robbins


Would you love more quotes on how to love? Click here to visit the Spiritual Inspirations page.

Sorry for no "Thought for the Week"

Sorry, but there is no Thought for the Week this week. I was busy in the print and web design business and I was involved in the organisation of a spiritual seminar on Sunday last. All this meant the time flowed away into these tasks leaving none for writing the Thought for the Week.

If you'd still like to read something here are links to some older articles which you may enjoy.

Serendipity – how Life connects the dots with happy accidents


The Joy of Living


Spiritual Tools - Past Lives

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

*Ed Parkinson