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That is what my grandpa Jack said to me one time with a smile....and he was right I do Love everything about LOVE! I love God's love first and foremost as the way I understand our existence is all because "God so loved the world he gave us his only son". As a kid, I am sure I was the oddball because I actually liked going to church and looking up at this statue of Jesus Christ whom I understood was a very loving and forgiving person with no judgment...oh how if I could emulate him!
Beyond spiritual love, there are so many other forms of love and let's be honest everyone wants to feel love in some form....it is our human nature because LOVE is our natural spiritual nature. It is what we are here to "be & do". If you do nothing else, other than embody or express love in some form every day, you have done well.
There is parental love, romantic love, self-love... and I love them all. Is love a feeling? Is it an action? Is it a word spoken? Is it beyond a description? Do you know when you feel love?
I don't know about you but I am excited when I feel love. In Reiki sometimes there are moments in a session when my whole body fills up with this unexplained energy and I know it is the unconditional love from God channeling through me to reach the person receiving. It fills that person with love and healing. It is not "human-like" because as humans we tend to put conditions on how and when we give love and to whom is worthy.
My parents (who are 80) just celebrated 59 years of marriage this past week and my mom and dad still not only love each other but actually like each other. That LOVE! lol! I enjoy still observing moments of a smile when they share a memory they can laugh about or still remember when they first met. (My mom basically told me to go to the same college so I would meet someone like my dad! Ha! I actually listened and went, although I wasn't as lucky as my mom). I know every day, their marriage was probably not without a challenge, but every day they woke up and decided to love one another. That's a pretty great example of human Love.
I was a really happy child, busy all the time. When I was 11 years old and was playing at recess my chest/heart was in a lot of pain...I ended up in the hospital and I asked my mom what was wrong with me? She said: "Oh Gina, your heart's just too big." What a sweet way to tell me I had pericarditis where the lining of my heart was enlarged. My mom was giving me unconditional love and my dad left me a single yellow rose on my hospital bedside. I am sure maybe my love of flowers began and I became curious about what every color of a rose symbolized.
Almost 26 years ago I had my first understanding of parental love, my son Vincent was born. That's it...game over...nothing like it. Hmmm,...what is this new kind of Love I've not experienced yet? God gave me this beautiful little person to care for and raise. The absolute greatest blessing of my life. The kicker is the unexpected love he has given back to me (tenfold) and watching him express love to others. You don't have to try or decide to love your child, it just immediately happens.
"Self-love" is something you hear a lot about these days. Are you loving, kind, and caring for yourself? This is a big one for many to explore and feel worthy enough to do because maybe they were taught it's all about loving everyone else. I believe it is imperative to love yourself because God is in you and if you're not loving yourself, you are not loving God who lives in you. I had a friend once who said. "I've never loved anyone more than myself". Many would have considered that person selfish but I didn't, I knew what she meant. She had to love herself first and in doing so she had so much more to share with those she cared for. In watching her, she embodied love and expressed it constantly and easily to her friends and family.
So, as we approach this week when many celebrate romantic love...I encourage you to sit back and really reflect on how you participate daily in the act of Love, which for all of us is the only real job on earth. Please comment below and share your thought on the subject of love. Not some artificial version....simple, pure ...... how do you 'LOVE love', as my Grandpa would say?
In love and light,
It has taken many years to understand the concept and to actually love my being. I now know that without that self-love, you cannot truly love another. My self-loathing impeded my journey for many years, even when I thought I was beginning to see the "light". Once I realized that this love was missing in my life, I came to see how this was thwarting my progress. I still slip and say unkind things about myself but I think it had just become a habit to use self-deprecating humor.
I had to teach myself love because I didn't grow up with any and always felt less than. That led to a floundering adult who did not have the tools necessary…