Traditionally the month of February is when we celebrate love due to St Valentine’s Day, commemorated on 14th February, when the Roman Catholic Church remembers this Saint who is associated with courtly love. Many people give and receive cards, chocolates and perhaps even share a delicious meal together, to celebrate the love in their relationship. Yet there are two sides to this experience of course. I still have memories as a teenager, hoping to receive a Valentine’s Day card and not getting one – quite traumatic in many ways for a girl who wanted to be loved. Thankfully, I can now seek and find a deeper meaning, as this is what we do in Unity!

If you look him up on Wikipedia, St Valentine was a clergyman who ministered to persecuted Christians, and was eventually martyred. Well – here is something we can reflect on. Perhaps this is what love is really all about: serving each other, without fear of what it might mean for us. Stop here a moment and feel this … The willingness to be vulnerable … the willingness to let another person get close to us and still feel safe … This is what Jesus, as our way-shower in Unity, did after all. He loved, spoke up for and healed the sick and poor in his community. We are not all asked to share love this way. However, we can connect to the Love within and find ways to love and support each other.

Let us celebrate love, because love is the underlying truth of who we all are. You may hear me say that as human beings, we come from love, we abide in love and we all return to love. Sadly, many of us have forgotten this. Yet we are never separate from Divine love, because God is love and as Jesus taught, the Father and I are one, a statement each one of us can make real for ourselves. Moreover, one day we will all experience putting our bodies down so our spirit can return to the knowing of itself as Love. Let us not wait until then to make this real.
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Personally, this idea and experience of abiding in Love is powerful. It holds me, reminds me that I am forever safe and guides me through all my human experiences, good days and not so good days. It is my spiritual truth, whenever I tune in.

The question is … how can I express the love that I am in each moment? How can I love myself more fully as a spiritual being having human experiences? How can I support myself through these human experiences? How can I love another and support another through their human experiences? Because we only ever deeply feel the love that we are, when we share it unconditionally.

We all have our own answers and views about this. Is any of this even true for you? If yes, how can you follow through, being an individual expression of the Divine, of God. For we all express ourselves uniquely. Yet, I suggest, we each came to this earth to express the love that we are. In the midst of every challenge, we can tap into the God-energy of love and wisdom and find a way to express love, even if it is simply a touch or a smile.

This month, yes please give someone a beautiful card. Tell them you love them and perhaps share a meal with them. It does not have to be romantic or your life-partner and it does not have to be on 14th February. Any day, you can express the love that you are.

If you have any beautiful stories you can share, please email me. Here at Silent Unity, we know that you are love and you are loved. May you find a way to share this love with those around you.

​Rev Kimerie Mapletoft 
Director of Daily Word and Silent Unity UK

​Giving is truly an activity of the heart. Indeed, when our hearts are open, we give automatically – we cannot help ourselves. We willingly give our time, our attention, our loving support. In addition, when we do this consciously and joyfully, we witness the bountiful blessings experienced by the giver and receiver, which brings even more joy.
 
In my experience, giving conditionally, in other words giving in expectation of getting something back, blocks our good, for ultimately it gets in the way of the joy of the experience. For instance, when giving a gift and expecting, but not receiving a thank you letter or acknowledgement, I have felt disappointed and upset. My heart closed and resentment or anger affected my body, mind and heart – not a good thing for me or anyone! I am learning to give simply for the joy of giving. To let any result go is freeing indeed.
 
This year, my intention is to keep my heart open; be present to everyone and myself, to let the natural love that I am, we are, flow. Being present in this way, I have already witnessed deeper blessings in my relationships, which feel more beautiful because of this.

My question to you is, how can you support yourself to give and receive with an open, loving heart, without any condition attached? Can you see where the giving has been conditional? Perhaps journal, draw or create something that helps you reflect on this for yourself this week and this year. I would love to hear of any realisations you have had; any clarity that has come from this reflection. 

The beginning of a New Year is a wonderful time to focus on the good you are looking to experience in the coming year.

​This is not a list of resolutions of things you should do. It is a knowing of what you would like to experience more of. Thus, every January, Unity hosts a Burning Bowl Ceremony, leading us through the experience of letting go of what is no longer needed, to make space for the new good that is desired and anticipated. This good which is good for everyone. Although in Unity we normally do this in January in fact this process can be used at any time of year as each day we begin anew. 

I dedicate this day to God working perfectly through me.

Take a quiet moment to let these words sink in...

What does this mean to you? Does it mean taking time to be still? Perhaps taking time to dance, sing, play, walk in nature, find a way to help someone. Perhaps it may mean peace, good health, guiding light and other practical ways you can experience God within, through and as you.

You may like to journal your thoughts or be creative and draw or paint something, even build something.

Let yourself be inspired - the light of God shines brightly in you. Celebrate all the ways you can know this, for yourself, today, and every day this year!

Rev Kimerie Mapletoft 
Director of Daily Word and Silent Unity UK