A personal energy crisis.

“When we find it difficult to love, we can think of it as a personal energy crisis.”

—Sri Eknath Easwaran, Words to Live By

Love is a renewable resource, like solar or wind energy, not a fuel like gas or coal that we hoard and fear will run out at any time, leaving us cold and stranded. Love is inexhaustible, and paradoxically, the more we share, the more we give away, the more we have, and the more we have to give.

The power behind love’s energy—the sun behind its solar panels, the wind that spins the windmill’s blades—is Usui Founder’s central Reiki Principle (aka Precept, Ideal): Be grateful.

Gratitude powers love. When you see a beautiful natural scene, and feel gratitude washing over you for the privilege of being in that beautiful place at that time, you also feel a rush of love for nature and our glorious earthly paradise. When you hear the tiny puff-puff snores of your enormous Maine coon cat and feel grateful to have his love and companionship, to be in the presence of such utter, oblivious contentment, you feel love swelling up and brimming over. When you see that your spouse or partner has done all the morning chores, knowing you’d been tossing and turning half the night, so you could get an extra hour’s sleep, and hasn’t even mentioned it, and you’re so touched and grateful, you feel love radiating out like the sun, blowing around you like the wind.

And because that energy continues to fill you through the power of gratitude, you have to express it in our Founder’s final Principle, Be kind. You can’t see a cashier or stylist who’s been standing on her feet for hours, or an older person struggling across a parking lot, or a server rushing around trying to deal with dozens or even hundreds of orders, without saying something kind, without displaying patience, without smiling. You can’t help waving at your neighbors, sharing a dish or some extra garden produce or playing with their dog or their kids, or picking up their newspapers and mail while they’re away.

You can find the strength to smile and say something kind to that obnoxious guy in the next cubicle, no matter what you’d really like to say, remembering that the alternative to the truth is silence. And you can let your love overflow when you’re at home with your family and pets, when you’re with your friends, when you’re caring for your plants or sitting on your deck, enjoying the stream and the yard and the birds, butterflies, lightning bugs, chipmunks, frogs, and other creatures with whom you share your life. You can let your gratitude and love flow back to your parents, relatives and ancestors, and all the happy memories they gave you, perhaps setting up a shrine with photos, flowers, incense, and candles, as I’ve seen at a fellow Reiki practitioner’s home.

Love is the one form of energy that’s truly inexhaustible. The more you give, the more you have. Don’t hoard it and let your batteries run down.

Just for today, be grateful and be kind.