One of my clients is a photographer. She sent me a private message on Twitter that she just had to take some photos, instead of working on the other things on her to-do list.
I saw those photos. A peeler. A grater. Things out of her kitchen drawer, and a white sheet of paper. Ten minutes. Beauty.
I was stunned. I had to ask, “How do you *do* that? Those photos are so enticing and beautiful.”
Her answer? “I seriously love the world. I love everything I photograph deeply…even if it’s junk….”
Love Is Trite
Love is simply the most discussed, most sung about, most poemed (is that a word?), most cried over, laughed over topic in the world, ever. There is nothing new to say about love. You’ve heard it so many times, it’s easy to dismiss, even if you believe in the power of love.
Yet did you see those photos of hers? The presence of love took the ordinary and made it glow. The next time I go up to my kitchen, you can bet I’ll be looking at my peeler differently.
I know I don’t have to convince you about the power of love. But I feel I do need to open all of our eyes to remembering the power of it.
Love Needs Context
In my tradition of Sufism, love is talked about needing both an object and a subject. A lover and a beloved. Without a beloved, the one loved, love is not activated, engaged. It does not come alive.
And without a lover, the one who loves, love has nowhere to live.
When we talk about bringing heart into business, we’re talking about love. But what we’re really talking about is the miraculous, immersive experience that happens between the lover and the beloved, and how that affects everyone around.
If you are bringing love to your business, what is your context? Who is the beloved, who is the lover?
Love is (Often) Hidden
Take a moment right now. Close your eyes. Put your hand over your heart. Allow your lungs to fill with a gentle, full breath. Now, in your heart, ask for love.
Open your eyes. Look at something to do with your business. Keep your eyes open. Put your hand over your heart. Allow your lungs to fill with a gentle, full breath. In your heart, ask to witness love within whatever you are looking at.
Take your time. Sometimes our previous experiences veil the deeper witnessing of love from us. Look at your phone, or your computer, or your desk. Look at a pile of paper you need to clean up. Ask to witness the deeper love in it.
What changes? What becomes possible?
Love Requires You
You may need love, but love also needs you. As Mevlana Jallalu’ddin Rumi wrote, “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.”
Be awake to love. Honor the lover and beloved in each context. Look deeper for what is hidden.
My photographer client I mentioned above? She’s found a way to help people open their eyes to seeing differently. It costs nothing but your attention. And, in my opinion, it’s fantastic. Check out re:focus here.
What does this have to do with business? You tell me. Right here on the blog, let me know how this affects, or doesn’t affect, your business in a real way.
27 Responses
Hey Mark,
What is love in a business context? What comes to me is the wonderful truism – I forget who coined it – that when we do what we love we have retired from “work”.
Very true in my experience.
with kindness,
Leo
Beautiful, Leo. 🙂
Hi Mark,
I’m happy to read this, it has been the message at my feet this week also.
I came across a note, ‘Love is the shortest distance between any two points,’ and have been seeing it all week. The distance between me and other people, between a task and it’s completion.
It has changed the week – in a meeting with someone I hoped to connect with deeply but was worried that it would not happen. I was just climbing into my suit of armour to ‘protect’ myself just in case, when I remembered it. And thought no, the truth is here that I love you and you are going to know about it! And that changed everything.
I remembered it too when I went to clean the bathroom. I thought how do I find a way to love this task, and by wanting to it turned out I just did. Who couldn’t love the thought of a beautiful fresh bathroom for everyone to enjoy 🙂
I am happily anticipating the endless differences this thought can make.
Thank you, Mark.
Ann
Ann – the bathroom is a perfect place to dig into this teaching, eh? Kinda perfect. Thank you!
Being awake to love in my business can cut through the blizzard of choices each day brings and help me decide what’s truly important.
Being awake to love in my business reminds me that the WHY of serving others is greater than the WHY of a short-term sale.
Being awake to love breathes life into the connection between me and my work and my clients and my prospects.
You can never know how much I needed this message right at this moment. Thank you.
Ahh…. thank you, Elizabeth.
This is the
Let’s try that again…
This is the very essence of a program I was inspired to create for my own clients. One morning I got up to fix breakfast for my 5 year old – who loves pancakes. That morning, the God Voice inside me said “what if you did everything from a place of love?”
Including making pancakes (and I’m not a big fan of making pancakes, I must say).
That was the first day I ever made perfectly round, golden brown, deliciously fluffy pancakes. Because I focused on loving my way through the process.
That day unfolded an entirely new approach for my business. How love is as much an ingredient in my business “pancake recipe” as the tools, people, and processes. In fact, it’s crucial.
This is the thing I wanted to reconnect with you on, so it’s really cool to see how God’s perfect timing plays out again.
Yay, Lisa! Yay pancakes. Ping me, let’s talk.
Mark,
Beautiful article! Thank you. My passion is working with leaders on the the root cause of life… love. For those who would like “justification” for the power of love in organizational settings, I offer this article: http://www.leadingaslove.com/pdfs/Nebelung_Leadership_As_Connection.pdf. It was published in a special volume entitled Leading in Times of Uncertainty.
Mark, many blessings for your work.
Lucira Jane
This is beautiful, Mark – and yet, in my experience, I don’t find that love really does need context.
As one of my teachers says, “Love doesn’t need to project itself onto an object.” Love simply is; it’s a quality of life, a quality of the ground of being. It’s who and what we already and always are.
Of course love can express itself as love for a person or thing – my friends, my clients, my work, my cats, the hummingbird at the feeder outside my window, and so on. Yet it’s also present in the candy-wrapper lying in the gutter.
And each of those experiences of “love for something” – subject/object love, as you describe – is just a facet on the diamond of the love that simply is.
Causeless love and causeless joy – it’s what allows me to see through my experiences of struggle; it’s what comes through me to express itself in my work (especially when I remember to stop thinking so much and get out of the way!).
I hope that makes some sort of sense!
Grace- If you’re feeling love in your heart, then your heart is the locus of manifestation for that love. Your heart becomes the context. The “causeless” love you’re talking about is what the Sufis refer to as the love of God, where you become the beloved and the Divine is the Lover. You didn’t cause it, but it’s not causeless. 🙂
Then, how that love moves you beyond that creates further context, where you become the lover and whoever receives your presence the beloved.
Helpful?
Well, I wasn’t actually looking for help! 🙂 just describing my experience.
I don’t see a need for two; my experience is of one.
Obviously neither of us is “wrong” – it’s a matter of individual experience and perspective.
I didn’t complete my sentence… “Helpful in understanding where I was coming from and what I meant by context?” 🙂 And you’re right, there is only One.
Yes! 🙂
Hey! I wanna see the pictures! Can you share it with us? The way you describe them makes me feel curious about them.
Yes- go back up to the paragraph, Kee- there’s a link.
Mark, thank you (for what seems like the 18th time) for shimmering wisdom of the most counter-intuitively revolutionary kind.
I just meditated for a short time on this, as you suggested. I was reminded that, every single time I am getting stuck in life or business, it is because I am losing sight of love and forgetting about love. Without exception.
And when I come back to love, the problem dissolves. Without exception.
And, in the meditation, I realized some powerful things about what I need to do with my business to make it more whole-hearted and love-centric. Not only is this going to be much more effective, it is going to be so much easier on me. Because who I am is love and congruence makes everything flow better.
Thank you.
Simone! So happy to hear this! Woo-hoo! Nothing like love…. 🙂
This is so full of heart Mark. Yes, love is the nature of the universe. Love animates all life whether we realize it or not. Ah, these moments when the veil lifts and we feel love pulsing strong. The way you hold the pen in your hand. The way your fingers touch the keyboard. The way you brush your hair. The way you look at all your beloveds. When the heart melts and all these moments glow with love, there is Sacred Flow, consciousness manifest, shared, alive, free.
It’s like the Beatle’s say Mark “All you need is love”, and I really believe this is true. Love is my food, clothing and shelter from the storm… Nice to see something about love on a marketing blog 🙂
Personally, I consider that love is the power for evolution, not only human.
From one fact I learnt, the species with more variety of breeds and sizes is dogs, I came up with the short tale I share here. I choose love 🙂
Thank you.
Luis Javier L
just think how great the worldn would be if every action we take comes from our hearts and is done with love
I really enjoyed reading your beautiful article
Here it is which I had been searching for a long time.Really valuable article as love has much importance than ever:)
Being in love is very important but hard is better today
Mark,
Your articles have helped me important insights as I start my business. I was on the call with you and Jonathan Mead last week – that was really cool 🙂 Since then, I’ve been reading your articles and working through the free training guides. They’ve helped me get some much-needed clarity about what I want to offer. So, thanks!