Loveworks!
The Rodan Foundation’s Publication for The Love Awakening
November 2025
The Love Awakening (TLA) is the service arm of The Rodan Foundation. The TLA offers self-empowerment tools and courses designed to help you awaken and reclaim your personal power through positive living. We live the power of love through volunteer efforts supporting the people and the environment in our local and extended communities.
Our mission is to assist humanity in awakening to the power of love. Our intention is to help others awaken to who they truly are and use that awakening for the greater good. Our vision is the collective awakening of humanity, bringing forth harmony and unity for all. Join us as we learn and grow in the ways of living love and loving life!
THE LEGACY OF LOVE:
A LESSON IN BUILDING A LIFE OF LOVE
Yesterday, I conversed with a homeless man. Intoxicated and frustrated, he called me vile names. He mocked me, threatened my family, and spat at me. He wore urine-stained clothing and had no food in his tummy; he appeared miserable. His meanness, I quickly forgave, knowing his story is deeper and more complex than I could draw from momentary contact. After nearly two decades of policing a major city, I have learned not to take interactions personally.
His physical and mental condition, however, gave me great sorrow. Pain and loneliness were his daily companions. One wonders whether this man had a family that cared for him. Was he just another of many forgotten people on this planet of ours? Unfortunately, He will likely die alone, like so many unhoused people do, while living in a large metropolitan area, surrounded by people. He will leave no legacy of love.
A few hours after this unpleasant encounter, I was dispatched to the home of an 88-year-old man who passed away during the night. During my time in this house, family and friends continuously flowed through the door, lingered in the room, saying goodbyes. Over several hours, dozens of friends and relatives flooded the small rooms of this modest home. Over the course of this man’s long life, he built a legacy of love. I felt as if I stood on sacred ground.
Key Definition: Leaving a Legacy of Love refers to our example and kindness living on after we leave this world. Our relationships create our legacy.
Life Is a Complex Blend of Choices and Fate: Neither the life of this recently deceased father (grandfather and friend) nor the life of the struggling alcoholic was the expression of a single act. Their lives were composed of many preceding days, choices, and interactions. Our acts of kindness, or meanness, slowly create our legacy of love. We build the essence of our being through relationships. Do we hate the world and in return the world hates us, or do we love the world and in return the world loves us?
One man died surrounded by friends and family, each with cherished memories of closeness; the other, sadly, will most likely die a lonely hermit. His meanness drives others from his life. In an odd play of fate and autonomy, our lives are formed. In psychology, this is referred to as reciprocal determinism. Our actions impact our environment, and our environment impacts our actions. Around and around we go, slowly becoming. Leonard Mlodinow, a mathematician and author, wrote that “the outline of our lives, like the candle’s flame, is continuously coaxed in new directions by a variety of random events that, along with our responses to them, determine our fate. As a result, life is both hard to predict and hard to interpret.
Every Act of Kindness Builds a Legacy of Love: The independent forces that influenced the development of these two different men remain unknown to the casual observer. We can, and should, show compassion to both men. However, I do know that the seemingly small paths we take early in life largely determine the circumstances surrounding us later in life. Accordingly, each act of kindness reverberates through our futures, forming or destroying our legacy. The choices we make, no matter how trivial they may seem at the time, create a ripple effect in our lives and the lives of others. Each interaction we have is an opportunity to either uplift or diminish those around us. In a world where negativity often dominates headlines, it’s essential to remember that kindness can be just as contagious as anger. When we choose to act with compassion, we inspire others to do the same, creating a network of support and love that extends far beyond our immediate reach.
Moreover, understanding the complexities of each individual’s story encourages empathy rather than judgment. We might encounter people who appear unkind or troubled without knowing what battles they face behind their façade. By recognizing this shared humanity, we foster connections that transcend superficial differences. It is through these connections—rooted in understanding and forgiveness—that true legacies are built; legacies not defined by wealth or status but by the hearts we’ve touched along our journey.
“Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Things We Can Do To Build Our Legacy of Love: Here are actionable steps we can take to build a legacy of love.
Practice Kindness Daily: Make it a habit to perform small acts of kindness.
Foster Relationships: Invest time in nurturing relationships with family and friends.
Volunteer Your Time: Engage in community service or support local charities.
Listen Actively: Show genuine interest in others by listening attentively during conversations.
Express Gratitude: Take time to express appreciation for the people around you.
Be Forgiving: Let go of grudges and practice forgiveness towards yourself and others.
Share Your Stories: Open up about your own experiences—both triumphs and struggles.
Encourage Others: Be an advocate for positivity.
Create Traditions: Establish family traditions or rituals that promote connection.
Lead by Example: Model loving behavior consistently.
By implementing these practices into our daily lives, we actively contribute to creating meaningful legacies rooted in love that will resonate long after we’re gone. Psychologyfanatic.com
The "I Love Me" MeditationTM
The "I Love Me" Meditation is a simple and profound heart-centered practice of generating your personal frequency of love. It will teach you how to activate your natural capacity to generate and experience love through conscious awareness and conscious choice. This practice helps us to awaken. It encourages personal empower-ment, greater self-esteem and self-discovery as we learn practical means of replacing fear and negative frequency with the most powerful force in the universe: Love!
The “I Love Me” meditation series and the “Embrace of Acceptance” series are available on the free Insight Timer App. To listen, download the app or visit https://insig.ht/jErOcnXnjub
Upcoming Service Activities and Volunteer Events
Look forward to our December Holiday Sing & Share!
DECEMBER SING & SHARE
Sunday, December 14th: 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Burlingame Senior Living 250 Myrtle Road, Burlingame Join with us as we delight and inspire the elders of our community with lively company, silly joke time, and a fun, oldies-but-goodies sing-along with musical accompaniment. Don't sing well? Don't worry! All you need is a heart full of goodness and a smile. Please come live your love with us! Adults and children of all ages are welcome.
The Embrace of LoveTM
The Embrace of LoveTM is a guided meditation series which uses profound philosophy and gentle guidance to deepen your healing relationship with yourself as you are connected with the empowering presence of acceptance. Listen to a free recording on The Love Awakening's website and discover more about our organization and activities: theloveawakening.org
Also....
Experience a video podcast of Rev. Clarke Carraway's inspired Presentation of Truth.
"Like" The Love Awakening on Facebook and join our community.
DIVINE GUIDANCE
In our early years together, we did our best to love each other, to unearth and change the separative beliefs and patterns that obstructed our love, and to unselfishly serve the world. The farther we went down that road, the more we came up against our personal limitations in taking each other sensitively and fully into account, and in discerning what would be most right and most helpful in each of the situations and decisions that confronted us.
Feeling like we’d reached the limits of our personal efforts, we asked for Divine assistance. It became clear we needed brighter thoughts, greater love, deeper understanding, and more expansiveness than our limited human perspective permits. Feeling like we’d reached the limits of our personal efforts, we asked for Divine assistance. “My love is not enough. I need Your help. Love through me,” we prayed, not really knowing what to expect. The Divine responded, and when we followed its lead, the advice worked wonders.
Then began a process of increasing our attunement, learning to recognize our Divine guidance, adjusting our lifelong habits of self-directed thinking and doing, and embracing our new partnership. Our growing experience with the Divine has convinced us that a person needn’t be a great mystic or saint to walk closely with God, hand in hand, and experience God’s personal love, constant presence, and guidance in their own daily lives . . . it is the birthright of every human being. lovetrust.net/guidance