February’s Being Game: Being an invitation to love

“Being an invitation to love” was our February Sacred Commerce game. Despite its soap opera-sounding quality, playing this game was not only super fun but was quite the opposite of the drama you might expect!

Sacred Commerce teaches that “being an invitation is… a request to participate, come forward, [and]open up to the possibility of an exchange of affirmations by offering a welcoming and encouraging gesture that signifies, “we want to deal with the real you.” Being an invitation is about simply being the essence of service, which we say is love, with whomever you are interacting. It’s not about making others wrong who may share a different view or denying them compassion or care if they reject our invitation. Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, a German writer, artist, and poly math put it beautifully when he wrote: “Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”

There are many instances at Dharma where we get to practice this. For example because many of our clients have had undesirable past experiences with other providers, they sometimes come to us still holding some fear and may have trouble letting go of it at times. It is in moments like these that we are honored to get to be an invitation to love by simply hearing their experiences, not making them or their previous providers wrong for them, and offering these clients our knowledge and services (our form of love) with respect and compassion. This experience more often than not helps our clients regain trust that they will be taken care of and often leaves us feeling inspired and grateful to have been of loving service. It is amazing what transformations occur when we are an invitation to love and the long-lasting and mutually respectful relationships that are cultivated as a result.

How are you being an invitation to love in your life?