What I’ve Learned About Love and Loving Well

“High-energy Mookaite heart stones I sometimes make jewelry with, sitting pretty on a love-fest ceramic dish with birds and cats living together in harmony, made by a local artisan.”

 

“4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
(New International Version)

This is definitely one of my favorite sets of verses in the Holy Bible. In other words, LOVE means PURE LOVE and nothing but LOVE. It is an entirely positive-energy experience. Period.

I’ve learned that aside from some rare relationships in my life, most ‘love’ relationships I experienced were a better example of codependent fear and/or attachment than they were of the pure love so eloquently written about in the bible verses above. They were also very emotionally complicated, which is a natural component of the human experience, and I was as much a part of that complicated experience as the other person.

When we are quite, quite young, PURE LOVE is our natural “way of being.” We are naturally tapped into the love residing deep inside of us and because of that, we lovingly interact with others from that deep well of love. There is no thought to it, just pure love energy. As within, so without.

Eventually, though, we learn other “ways of being” that are shaped by wants and needs and the learned behavior in our culture, society and upbringing about how to acquire those wants and needs. Eventually, we become distanced from the infinite well of love within us, meant to sustain us no matter what, and instead turn outward for external sources of it, which is very much like swimming in mud when it doesn’t work out well. Love within is infinite. Love without is always subject to change and our dependency on it as a sole source of our very own SELF, our reason for being, is dangerous to our emotional health.

I’ve also learned (and by ‘learned’ I mean, “really embraced“) that we are always unconditionally loved by that which created us. We are ‘of’ that which created us (pure love and infinite creativity). We were created from love in the image of that which created us and therefore, IMHO, we ARE love… something we seem to know when we are first born into the world, but forget as adults.

WE’RE ONLY HUMAN

We are, after all, humans with rather complicated thoughts and emotions that constantly change our perception of the world we live in. WE INTERPRET WHAT WE SEE with great influence from the outside world and OUR interactions with it, which, in turn, forms what we BELIEVE, which may or may not be “true” even when it feels “real,” may or may not be what everyone or anyone else sees or believes, based on THEIR experiences.

As for me, I’ve begun to embrace that I might do better to slow down and attempt to observe my own actions and reactions in the world around me and take some ownership for that. Am I acting or re-acting from a place of positive-energy LOVE? Or am I just drawing immediate conclusions from past learned patterns that frankly haven’t served me very well?

As for all of us, maybe it’s time we all try BELIEVING BEFORE SEEING…

BELIEVE… in infinite internal love so that we may truly feel it and see it at play in our lives.

BELIEVE… that we already have and are that which we seek.

The more challenging life is, the more we may realize there are times when we can’t rely on others, that we must instead rely on our own well of PURE LOVE and STRENGTH to sustain us. This reality can be both devastating and liberating. And the difference between devastation and liberation is BELIEF. A re-connection to our own deep inner well of LOVE is the pathway to liberation from that which we have believed in the past was externally acquired and had the power to break us.

We are unbreakable.
We are FULLY LOVED.
WE ARE LOVE.

And in the meantime, while we try to undo that which stopped us from believing in our infinite abilities and possibilities in the first place, we are gradually reminded and truly embrace that we are already loved unconditionally by that which created us. And we are capable of loving in exactly this same way with all other beings in this world… changing the world for the better, one heart at a time.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Spread your heart-centered energy as much as possible. The world needs it and you!!!

All my love (truly),