{"id":223,"date":"2012-02-13T12:07:11","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T17:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/insweetcompany\/?p=223"},"modified":"2012-02-13T12:07:11","modified_gmt":"2012-02-13T17:07:11","slug":"beyond-hearts-and-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Hearts and Flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTo me, God is love.\u00a0I\u2019m not speaking of a physical or personal love, but of the universal love that created all of us and everything in this universe, the unconditional love, the infinite power that transcends everything in this finite world.\u00a0When you know that love through personal experience, it\u2019s something that\u2019s with you constantly\u2026 It\u2019s not just a thought or mental process.\u00a0It\u2019s an experience, a joy that wells up in your heart.\u00a0I could not live without that inner communion.\u00a0It\u2019s more precious to me than life or breath.\u201d\u2014<\/em>Sri Daya Mata, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE<\/p>\n

Yesterday my husband and I went to the Oakland Zoo. We sat on a bench by the lions and waited for them to wake up. After a while, I started to watch the people watching the lions: six-year-olds pressing toes against the fence line, parents taking photos with their phones, grandparents taking a breather from pushing strollers of sleeping babies, young lovers standing close together hand pressed in hand. Despite our external differences\u2014size, age, race, and a variety of fashion statements\u2014it was a beautiful tableau. Everything fit. Everyone had a place.<\/p>\n

There is a old Yiddish proverb that says if you think of the person beside you as the Messiah, you will weigh your words and watch your hands. If they choose not to reveal themselves to you it will not matter.<\/p>\n

What a valentine this would be for the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTo me, God is love.\u00a0I\u2019m not speaking of a physical or personal love, but of the universal love that created all of us and everything in this universe, the unconditional love, the infinite power that transcends everything in this finite world.\u00a0When you know that love through personal experience, it\u2019s something that\u2019s with you constantly\u2026 It\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,9],"tags":[40,100],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interconnectedness","category-spiritual-journey","category-the-greater-good","tag-sri-daya-mata","tag-valentines-day"],"yoast_head":"\nBeyond Hearts and Flowers - In Sweet Company<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beyond Hearts and Flowers - In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cTo me, God is love.\u00a0I\u2019m not speaking of a physical or personal love, but of the universal love that created all of us and everything in this universe, the unconditional love, the infinite power that transcends everything in this finite world.\u00a0When you know that love through personal experience, it\u2019s something that\u2019s with you constantly\u2026 It\u2019s…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-13T17:07:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Margaret Wolff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Beyond Hearts and Flowers - In Sweet Company","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Beyond Hearts and Flowers - In Sweet Company","og_description":"\u201cTo me, God is love.\u00a0I\u2019m not speaking of a physical or personal love, but of the universal love that created all of us and everything in this universe, the unconditional love, the infinite power that transcends everything in this finite world.\u00a0When you know that love through personal experience, it\u2019s something that\u2019s with you constantly\u2026 It\u2019s…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html","og_site_name":"In Sweet Company","article_published_time":"2012-02-13T17:07:11+00:00","author":"Margaret Wolff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html","name":"Beyond Hearts and Flowers - In Sweet Company","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-02-13T17:07:11+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-13T17:07:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#\/schema\/person\/9e1d77d12de19dd0d4fbc84d1f7fc52a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/02\/beyond-hearts-and-flowers.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Beyond Hearts and Flowers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/","name":"In Sweet Company","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Margaret Wolff","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#\/schema\/person\/9e1d77d12de19dd0d4fbc84d1f7fc52a","name":"Margaret Wolff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/673\/67331f0571f27a0987e8cbfde3e832b4x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/673\/67331f0571f27a0987e8cbfde3e832b4x96.jpg","caption":"Margaret Wolff"},"description":"Margaret Wolff has a gift of luring people into becoming who they really are. She speaks and writes about things women care about: how to make our lives and our work be about what we value most; how to navigate challenge and change; how to live with integrity and grace, to look at error in ourselves and others in a forgiving way and view life as an invitation to transform ourselves into instruments for the Greater Good. \"I laughed, I cried, I was silent, I cheered. Most of all, I loved.\" Spoken by a woman at In Sweet Company Retreat, these words express what women experience when Margaret engages them in dynamic, soul-searching conversations about their lives. Margaret holds degrees in art therapy, psychosynthesis, and leadership and human behavior. Her work takes her to universities, to conferences and retreat settings, to living rooms and board rooms -- wherever women gather. Her articles, essays, and stories are featured in numerous magazines; her women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spirituality retreats are held throughout the U.S. Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last book, In \"Sweet Company: Conversations With Extraordinary Women About Living a Spiritual Life\" (Jossey Bass), is a collection of intimate conversations she had with 14 famous women of various ages, faiths, and backgrounds about how their spirituality nourishes them and serves as a steady compass for their decision-making. Olympia Dukakis, Riane Eisler, Zainab Salbi, Margaret Wheatley, Sri Daya Mata, Lauren Artress, and other women artists, activists, religious leaders, and visionary thinkers shared their lives with her. You can too!","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/author\/mwolff"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}