by Bill Cumming

Today’s newsletter is about Robert Holden. I have never met Robert Holden. Not unusual, I never met Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. either. What I know about him is that of all the people I know, I have never heard one person say anything about him except high praise and that he is a walking manifestation of loving-kindness. Quite frankly, that’s all it takes for me, because it is my experience that until people experience that they are loved and/or are love, which would be Robert’s way of referencing it, we will continue to do damage to ourselves and others around us.

Today is the launch of Robert’s new book, “Loveability,” in the United States. We are sending this newsletter out three days early as an acknowledgment of that event. I bought the book last week, read it immediately and suggest you do as well. Why?

It talks about the real meaning of love.

Will cause us to examine our motives when we say
“I love you.”
It explores the ways churches and others have distorted the meaning of “love.”

It will cause you to look at your experience with this wonderful word, “love,” and how it has been used around you over time.

Most of all, “Loveability” presents an opportunity to explore your relationship with loving-kindness and the people in your life, all 7 billion of them.

I offer two pieces of Robert’s writing as a window into why what he says is so important! First from his website:

Falling in Love
Thu, Feb 14 2013 12:25

Happy Valentines Day to you. Today is a good day to pay attention to your relationship to love, and to commit to being the most loving person you can be. Make it your intention today to love everyone. Allow yourself to let love in today. Don’t leave yourself out. Loves excludes no one, after all. To mark this occasion, here is a poem, Falling in Love, which I put inside a card for Hollie this morning.

You can fall in love with the same person
for the first time at least ten thousand
times, if you play it right.
And that’s just in the
beginning.

After that, you can fall in love with each
other more times than you can count.
And each time it will feel more like
love than before.

Eventually, you will fall in love together
as often as you want.
And even more than that, because
you won’t have a choice
about it.

The last time you fall in love will
be when you finally let love do
away with you and me and him
and her and all of us.

In the end, only love remains.

Ha! It was love falling in love
with love all along.

And from his introduction to Matt Schweppe’s forthcoming book, “Taking a Stand:”

In Taking a Stand, Matt Schweppe presents us with a basic choice in the form of a metaphor, which is, imprisonment or freedom. Chapter after chapter, he shows us the “prison of the mind,” what happens when we “plead guilty,” the ways in which we “sentence” ourselves to a small life, and what we can do to experience a “jailbreak.” Matt is calling us to live an incredible life. “Are you alive?” he asks. Or are you on death row? “The possibility for an incredible life exists. Will you choose it?” asks Matt.

What do you stand for?

Matt describes the personality as the “dungeon of the self.” He encourages us to release ourselves from the masks we wear, and from the little ideas we have about who we are and what our life is for. He quotes Jim Morrison, singer for The Doors, who said, “The most important kind of freedom is to be who you really are.” Matt explains that taking a stand in your life isn’t about assuming a position that is rigid or fixed; it is about allowing yourself to grow, to be inspired, and to become your true self. This is the ultimate jailbreak.

What do you stand for?

Taking a Stand is Matt’s first book. As I turned the pages of this book, I enjoyed witnessing how Matt is finding his true voice. He shares his ideas freely. Each page is full of challenge and support. He also shares inspiration from others found along the way on his own jailbreak. He quotes Carl Jung and Elvis Presley, Aristotle and Bruce Lee, William Shakespeare and Harrison Ford. Matt also keeps us true to ourselves. “What do you think?” he asks. He makes sure there is plenty of space for us to listen to the inner voice – the voice that will set us free.

What do you stand for?

Matt tells us he wrote Taking a Stand for his sister, Emily. I’ve been lucky enough to meet Emily, who is every bit as inspiring as her brother. Indeed, the whole Schweppe family is an inspiration. They are a holy ground to each other. They help each other to live from their core. They are a wonderful example of how when you set yourself free, it helps others to experience freedom also. Which leads me to the main message of my Foreword – or Preliminary Hearing, as Matt calls it – and that is, your Unconditioned Self is already free. The real you has always been free. Can you hear that? If so, I believe you are ready for Taking a Stand.

Robert Holden
London, UK.
author of Shift Happens!, Happiness NOW and
Authentic Success and “Loveability”

To read more about Robert Holden’s “Loveability”, click here.

Make yourself a lovely month!
With all my love and every blessing!
Namaste!
Bill