As you know, each week I plan our multi-faith music and meditation service with a particular theme in mind. More and more I find myself just going with whatever presents itself to me when I sit down to plan, being open to Spirit and expecting something cool to show up. This week I happened to glance up at shelf next to me and spotted Don Miguel Ruiz’s book The Mastery of Love, which I had bought on sale some time ago but hadn’t actually read yet.
I opened up to these words:
“Your heart is a magical kitchen. Open your heart. Open your magical kitchen and refuse to walk around the world begging for love. In your heart is all the love you need. Your heart can create any amount of love, not just for yourself, but for the whole world. You can give your love with no conditions; You can be generous with your love because you have a magical kitchen in your heart.”
Yep. Good place to start! Isn’t the magical kitchen a fantastic image? Just say the words “My heart is a magical kitchen” to yourself a couple times and you can feel your consciousness start to shift. If you believe those words even a little it’s like you hear the tumblers turning in the lock, like you’ve begun to crack the code. Yeah, you’re like a safe cracker!
And what’s in that safe? It’s the really good stuff and it’s not someone else’s treasure you’re trying to steal like a burglar. No, it’s all yours. It’s your birth-right. “It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom,” said Jesus. But like the guy in the parable we dug a hole and buried it to keep it “safe”. We kept it under lock and key because we thought we could lose it.
Speaking of magic, it’s like that Malvina Reynolds song, The Magic Penny. “Love is something if you give it away, you end up having more. …it’s a treasure and you’ll never loose it unless you lock up your door.” Once you get that safe open and the loot out of there all heaven could break loose, because that treasure isn’t a treasure until it’s shared, of course. Even Malvina knew that when she wrote that song at age fifteen (thanks to Debra Burger for that tidbit).
Okay, let’s get back to the kitchen. It’s a yummier metaphor. It’s the loaves and fishes, right? (Hey, if Jesus had been born in England, would it have been tea and crumpets? I’d like to think so.) And of course, the message of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is not that we have to find a guy who can perform the magic trick or we’re all in deep weeds. (Political elections, anyone?) No, it’s that all we need is already there within each one of us and when we trust that and begin to share it, we can expect an amazing feast with plenty left over to share with the local food bank.
Don Miguel says, “Selfishness comes from poverty in the heart, from the belief that love is not abundant. But when we know that our heart is a magical kitchen,we are always generous, and our love is completely unconditional.”
Have fun exploring your magic kitchen this week. Cook up something amazing!
Blessings,
Roger