| Love is a topic that has generated thousands of words in art, philosophy and religion. For as long as man has been able to record his thoughts, love has been a dominant subject. Poetry speaks of love more than anything else. The other arts draw on love more than anything else and yet nothing seems to be more misunderstood than what love is. The experience of falling in love for those fortunate enough to have had this experience is not to be forgotten. It is a time like no other in most people's lives. It is a time when the world appears perfect, when miracles happen and creativity abounds, and when joy is ever-present. What is this phenomenon? What happens when someone falls in love? Why do we seek love in so many ways? The little-understood aspect of love that explains so much is that love is the creative force of Spirit, of God, of Nature, call it what you will, it is that underlying Intelligence that animates and creates the world. That's what love is. Love is not something that happens to an individual, it is not something that happens between individuals, it is an experience of our own true nature - for in the end, love is what we are made of. It is how we are made and it is what we are made of. Love is the power that creates the universe from the infinitely small movements within ourselves to the infinitely, unimaginably large movement of the solar systems, galaxies and the stars. It is all driven by love. We associate love with the heart. There is a reason for this. The highest concentration of the types of cells that communicate directly with this creative force are in and around our heart. When we speak of opening our heart, what we are referring to is opening our conscious mind to the communication between our heart and this loving force. That is not a completely accurate description of what is happening, but it will suffice. Our heart is never really closed, it is only our conscious awareness of the love that flows through us that is blocked. When we fall in love, our ego is temporarily overpowered by the force of our connection with our heart, which puts us fully and truly in connection with the truth of our being. For that brief period we experience the truth of the world. Unfortunately our mythology and stories tell us that this is happening because of the one we are in love with. And so soon we are let down, disappointed by that person, and we begin to fear the repeat of some earlier trauma where we could no longer trust our love. We begin to close the connection once again. The reality is that we cannot be hurt again. Our survival is not at risk by opening our hearts and expressing our true selves as it once seemed when we were dependent infants. The fear is so ingrained that we struggle to open our hearts, but this is our only option if we want the peace and joy we long for. It is the risk we take as we each make our own journey back to our selves; which is the only journey worth doing and in the end it is the only journey that brings any reward worth having. |
