We expect a lot from art. We want it to inspire us. Yet, most of us overlook that truth that to enjoy the best art we need to make an effort. No art can reach us unless we discover how to be open to it. 

   The photograph portrays a dying leaf. If it is seen as only that, we may experience the image as "empty."

   How does this image (or any other) "fill" you? That depends on how you choose to experience it.

   We expect a lot from self-help books. Too often, we harbor a sweet expectation that the wisdom of "masters" will lift us to enlightenment.

   No writer, speaker or soothsayer can do this. Darn it!

   What the wise can do is point us in the right direction. They can guide us along our path to enlightenment. To discover this we need to walk (not run) down that path.

   The constant irony is that the enlightened journey leads in, not out. Society says otherwise. But, enlightenment (as both Jesus and the Buddhists teach) comes from within.

   The second most striking thing? To become "full" we must become as "empty" as we can.

   Our world view is clogged by so many wants and things that Love must struggle to make its way through our hearts.

   After decades of reflection, I am closer to understanding the idea of how empty becomes full (and vice versa.) Yet, my path to live this understanding takes more backward steps than it does forward ones.

   Ego is the enemy of Love. 

   Caregiving points us away from ego and towards Love's enlightenment. Crucial is that caregiving means the care we give to each other whether we are actively ill or not.

   It is the human experience that needs constant nurturing. 

   This is the energy behind Radical Loving Care. It is ten years since I wrote this book. The concepts are as valid to me (and to more than fifty thousand readers) now as they were then.   

   The teachings point the way. The stories we tell take us into the place where Love lives.

   The more we serve others, the more we are emptied of the noise of our desires. The more we let go of expectations the more Love beautifies our hearts.

   Easy words. The reason it is so hard to live Love is that our ego's shout otherwise.

-Erie Chapman 

Photograph: Late Autumn Leaf – copyright erie chapman 2012