What’s love got to do with it?
It’s midsummer, and the weather here in the Pacific Northwest has been moody, unpredictable. In the grocery story, in the teller line-up at the bank, people shake their heads and say: “July!” Mournfully.
Fog erases the contours of the land; melts sea and sky into a seamless mist; swirls like a cloak around the dark apparitions of trees.
In the course of a single afternoon, July morphs into March, or November.
And then, with the suddenness of a baby’s smile — radiant sunshine in a cobalt sky; the sea shimmers, an undulant gold.
And people smile at each other in the street. They turn up in droves on the beach near my house, lugging picnic baskets and beach towels, toddlers in tow. Raising their faces to the sun.
Each moment of weather has its own presence, its own qualities, unlike any other.
July isn’t trying to be some notion of July. It is itself – shifting, changing, wet and cold; hot and dry. Muggy. Sultry.
Like children trying to make sense of an unpredictable parent, we make up stories about July’s changing moods.
Sullen, we say. Or sparkling. Dreadful. Glorious!
We judge. We complain, or rejoice. We rush about, protecting ourselves from the wet; eagerly seizing our place in the sun.
And our judgements – our likes and dislikes, our stories about what we experience — obscure the truth of this moment, this weather, this day. They keep us disconnected from the world around us. They keep us disconnected from ourselves.
Thicker than yesterday’s fog, our bewilderment about the changing weather keeps us from savoring the delicious coolness of summer rain. It numbs us to the rush of awe at the delicate tremble of a thrush’s wings as she shakes raindrops off a pliant branch and launches herself into flight.
There is nothing cleaner, more satisfying, than unadorned attention to what is. There is nothing more magical, more extraordinary than the simple truth of things as they are.
Beyond our dreams, beyond our drama, lies the elegant body of life. It offers itself in each moment.
This big-eyed buck, with his two-pronged velvet horns, munching leaves off the cherry tree in my garden. The crow with his sideways waddle and glossy black feathers, pecking at the grass. Clouds resting softly against the mountain’s face as it kneels in a pewter sea.
The body of life. Its sacred, inexplicable beauty.
Your business has its weather too. Its own particular, unique, ever-changing landscape. It is itself; and no amount of moaning and complaining, hoping and longing, clinging or running away, will change its essence.
Your relationship with your business is also a landscape. One you nurture with your energy and attention. One you shape with the quality of your thoughts, feelings and actions towards it.
The real basis of all transformation is love. You cannot grow your business – or change what isn’t working – without loving it first. And to love it, you must give it your simple, direct attention. Beyond your stories, your dreams, your drama — to the truth of its own being.
When you try to make it something it is not – more special, more dramatic, more successful; or less demanding, less exhausting, less whatever-you-think-it-ought-not-to-be – you miss the power and beauty and magic that are its beating heart.
Can you see the beauty of your business when lightning strikes? When it rains in July? Can you love your business, when your product launch fizzles, or your systems spring a leak?
Business is as challenging as any intimate relationship. Every bit of fear, doubt, resistance you harbor in your body, will show up when you create your next thing, when you give your heart to it.
Love keeps you connected to the shining soul of your business. And love keeps you holding your business’s hand when the skies open up, the monsoons hit, and the ground under your feet dissolves into a swamp.
Love keeps you nourishing your business when your team members bicker like a bunch of kids hyped up on sugar, and your biggest client walks off into the sunset with another beauty on his arm.
Love gives you the courage to change course; the resilience to explore new options; the trust to step into the swamp and to know the path will appear underfoot.
Love is the single most essential element in your business. It is the air you and your business breathe. It is oxygen, and life, and sustenance. Without it, there is no relationship between you and the soul of your business. And without that relationship, your business cannot thrive.
How do you nurture love in your business? How do you suffuse the culture and landscape of your business with love? What do you do to keep your attention to your business clean and alive?
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thank you for this lovely powerful reminder!
Thanks for your loving attention, Jen. Savor and serve, indeed! :-)
It’s a beautiful reframe, especially as we’re having the same strange July weather you are having. Love is everything, of course, and shifts everything. Grateful for you, Hiro.
Ah, Mark. You share love in and through your business in ways that bless us all. Thanks for being here.
Hiro! This is absolutely stunning. I don’t even know how to respond. And that’s…quite rare.
XOXO.
:: A
:-) xo
Beautiful post, such a timely reminder for me. Full, grateful sigh. Thank you Hiro!
Thank you, Cheryl, for your generous, loving spirit.
Needed this right now. Not just for business but, other ventures too. Thank You, Hiro.
[...] I know you know what I mean. There’s something in your life that’s awaiting your attention, your love. Like what Hiro talks about here in this gorgeous piece about the miracle of ‘unadorned attention to what is.’ [...]
Your words are so lovely – I feel kissed by the northwest fog that I love so much, and then feel the sun on my cheek. A timely message as I work to birth the business that has been longing for it’s own life for decades – and prepare to leave for India. It’s perfect. Thank you so much.
Cate, birthing — a business, a life, a baby — is such an act of love, devotion and service. May your business unfold in perfect timing.
Thank you for reminding me to love what is, instead of trying too hard to change it. Change will come when it comes.
Marthe, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. You can consciously and skillfully facilitate change — in yourself, in a situation that needs it — and you can do it most effectively when you begin with love.
Love brings you into resonance with the spiritual heart of any person or situation — with its essence. And the essence of anything is greater than the sum of its parts. You can draw on the qualities of essence to create change.
For example: If I want to change a pattern within myself, love lets me see clearly which parts of me are entangled in the pattern. Then, I can bring these fragmented inner selves into my heart, bring my wholeness into relationship with them, and help them feel safe and contained enough to move towards their true essence.
My pattern is to decide business-ey things out of fear. Or excitement. Maybe excited fear, or fearful excitement. I recently decided to turn this process on its head and make some scary decisions from a place of love (self-love, but love for other things, too). The shift has already made me feel spacious, and kind of like I’m looking at a whole new landscape. It’s a very different place to decide things from.
Kylie, yes! The eyes of love see a very different landscape than the eyes of fear.
Love sees the connections, the relationships, between you, your business, and its ecology.
Fear squeezes the perimeter of perception into something too narrow to contain the whole field of relationships within which we are all held.
Lovely that you’re making a conscious choice to choose from a place of love! :-)
You amaze me!
[...] excerpt below is part of longer post about LOVE from woman of REAL BEAUTY, Hiro Boga. . “And our judgements – our likes and dislikes, our stories about what we experience [...]
[...] is nothing cleaner, more satisfying, than unadorned attention to what is.” http://t.co/7Gg0sOn by @hiroboga via @DanielleLaPorte Tags: tweets Previous article [...]
WOW! LOVE THIS!!!
Love what you do–do what you love—more love is always the answer.
What a beautifully written way to see this!
hiro,
thank you so much for your gorgeous writing. and what timing!! i just got home from a 5 day trip to texas where i took classes at other yoga studios, talked with teachers and a girlfriend, took samples and photos of marketing and materials. ….and through the experience (via space/distance, change of perspective, eventual homesickness) remembered the love i have for this service business. i feel so revitalized and inspired to meet the business where it is and with fresh eyes see what could be smoother and appreciate what’s working. it’s such an energetic place to be, esp after the dryness i felt when i left.
love the nature analogy… as always, your eloquence is captivating…
xoxo
[...] Hiro Boga: What’s Love Got To Do With It? [...]
[...] THIS: What’s Love Got To Do With It by Hiro [...]