I was asked the other day what I thought love is. More precisely, I was asked if I had ever known "that" kind of love. At first I didn't take it seriously - I thought they were talking about the "Across the Crowded Room", Debbie Reynolds and Rock Hudson or Dr. Zhivago "love of a lifetime" love.
That kind of love feels like neurosis to me. An illness one needs to get well from. Over the years my friends and I have talked a great deal about relationships, what we are really talking about is love. I am deeply involved with a loosely organized group of people who have dedicated themselves to seeking and then walking a spiritual path or their own choosing. Our experience tells us we must first seek God and know oursel¬ves [love ourselves] before we can love our fellow man. We also learn to love others and pray they are given that which we most desire in life.
I believe love is a journey of the soul. The soul has no interest in rational, intellectual thought, it is where wonder and imagination grows. Loving soulfully means using our imagina¬tion to see others as they are, not as we would have them be; just to see the wonder of them. To see how we are all created the same yet unique with our own experiences to live and our own diverse roads to travel is a marvel. It is a wondrous thing to spark the curious to know each one. The soul calls out to be amazed at meeting new creations and receiving the gifts they bear.
For me, to love the Divine, my fellow human, creation and myself and to feel love in return is the greatest gift. To be in relationship in a healthy manner, honoring and delighting in the differences of another being, watching them rise in love and daily become who they truly are as I am also honored and sup¬ported to grow and walk my own path is to love and be loved soulfully. There is a time to walk apart, going about our Higher Purpose and a time to come together, to share the silly, intimate and profound parts of our soul, to give time and in the span of time learn to trust enough to have the courage to reveal the dark as well as the light sides of my soul.
We take a risk when we open ourselves to share our soul with another person. The soul knows even though the intellect doesn't that all relationships end. The important lesson is that in the willingness to open and share heart to heart, time is not a factor, only soul's development in the process of relationship. In the timelessness of connecting and bonding, my soul is fed and I am changed for having risked the pain of rejection and loss.
I have a choice. I can choose to live apart, unconscious or I can choose to be open and receptive to life and love.
I have come to believe we can have all things as long as we are willing to let them go.
In a relationship, I see the revealing of my own growth and response to the challenge of risking vulnerability (honesty) with another. The more I become fully conscious, going along my own path, taking the steps to living a spiritual life, the more I see how far I've come by being in relationship with another like-minded person who is also walking their own personal path. When our two imagina-tions come together, we share on a level that has little to do with worldly, sophisticated techni¬ques and more to do with simple, playful, artful, even silly things. This I believe is loving soulfully.
The author of a book quite dear to my heart talks about the great humor and seeming worldliness and levity that people on this path have. How we sometimes shock others at how much fun we have dealing with devastating and deadly diseases. I believe this author under¬stood the soulfulness of recovery.
The relationship we have with one another is intimate and loving, yet fiercely rooted in our desire to have wellness and a spiritual life at all costs.
I am always filled with wonder as people share stories or current life events from a place of such deep pain only to have the next person share their experience in such a way as to have us all in tears of laughter. In the blink of an eye we roll from tears of pain to tears of understanding joy and humor.
And, so . . . . we call the topic relationships, when it is really love we are seeking. There are so many forms of love to experience - that of All That Is (ATI), family and friends, all creation, self and those we choose to love in "that" way.
Maybe my friends were right after all. Love isn't a neurosis one needs to get well from, If the Universal All In All is love as I believe and I am one with that energy, then all things are perfect in my world. Just as my serenity is in direct proportion to my spiritual condition, love is possible to experience in all its forms in direct proportion to how willing I am to be fully present, open and honest in the moment.
That kind of love feels like neurosis to me. An illness one needs to get well from. Over the years my friends and I have talked a great deal about relationships, what we are really talking about is love. I am deeply involved with a loosely organized group of people who have dedicated themselves to seeking and then walking a spiritual path or their own choosing. Our experience tells us we must first seek God and know oursel¬ves [love ourselves] before we can love our fellow man. We also learn to love others and pray they are given that which we most desire in life.
I believe love is a journey of the soul. The soul has no interest in rational, intellectual thought, it is where wonder and imagination grows. Loving soulfully means using our imagina¬tion to see others as they are, not as we would have them be; just to see the wonder of them. To see how we are all created the same yet unique with our own experiences to live and our own diverse roads to travel is a marvel. It is a wondrous thing to spark the curious to know each one. The soul calls out to be amazed at meeting new creations and receiving the gifts they bear.
For me, to love the Divine, my fellow human, creation and myself and to feel love in return is the greatest gift. To be in relationship in a healthy manner, honoring and delighting in the differences of another being, watching them rise in love and daily become who they truly are as I am also honored and sup¬ported to grow and walk my own path is to love and be loved soulfully. There is a time to walk apart, going about our Higher Purpose and a time to come together, to share the silly, intimate and profound parts of our soul, to give time and in the span of time learn to trust enough to have the courage to reveal the dark as well as the light sides of my soul.
We take a risk when we open ourselves to share our soul with another person. The soul knows even though the intellect doesn't that all relationships end. The important lesson is that in the willingness to open and share heart to heart, time is not a factor, only soul's development in the process of relationship. In the timelessness of connecting and bonding, my soul is fed and I am changed for having risked the pain of rejection and loss.
I have a choice. I can choose to live apart, unconscious or I can choose to be open and receptive to life and love.
I have come to believe we can have all things as long as we are willing to let them go.
In a relationship, I see the revealing of my own growth and response to the challenge of risking vulnerability (honesty) with another. The more I become fully conscious, going along my own path, taking the steps to living a spiritual life, the more I see how far I've come by being in relationship with another like-minded person who is also walking their own personal path. When our two imagina-tions come together, we share on a level that has little to do with worldly, sophisticated techni¬ques and more to do with simple, playful, artful, even silly things. This I believe is loving soulfully.
The author of a book quite dear to my heart talks about the great humor and seeming worldliness and levity that people on this path have. How we sometimes shock others at how much fun we have dealing with devastating and deadly diseases. I believe this author under¬stood the soulfulness of recovery.
The relationship we have with one another is intimate and loving, yet fiercely rooted in our desire to have wellness and a spiritual life at all costs.
I am always filled with wonder as people share stories or current life events from a place of such deep pain only to have the next person share their experience in such a way as to have us all in tears of laughter. In the blink of an eye we roll from tears of pain to tears of understanding joy and humor.
And, so . . . . we call the topic relationships, when it is really love we are seeking. There are so many forms of love to experience - that of All That Is (ATI), family and friends, all creation, self and those we choose to love in "that" way.
Maybe my friends were right after all. Love isn't a neurosis one needs to get well from, If the Universal All In All is love as I believe and I am one with that energy, then all things are perfect in my world. Just as my serenity is in direct proportion to my spiritual condition, love is possible to experience in all its forms in direct proportion to how willing I am to be fully present, open and honest in the moment.
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