We hear people say spiritual life is all about love. We believe it, but it is easy to forget.
We are taught to think of love as a way we feel. Your love may make you feel warm and tingly, or deeply satisfied. It is an amazing feeling, a strong feeling, but it fades as we start feeling something else.
The fact is that love, including the love filling spiritual life, is not about feeling a certain way. Love is deeper and more true than our feelings. Love is about knowing and being known.
Love grows in intimacy and depth of understanding. What, and who, we love shapes us. We shape who, and what, we love.
We grow in love for ourselves as we spend time getting to know our true selves. Our relationship with ourselves deepens. We come to recognize and appreciate ourselves in new ways. As we listen to our own inner voice, the reality of who we are becomes clearer.
Loving other people is similar to the way we love ourselves. We listen, we develop a relationship, we share our true selves with the people around us. We see and value people differently as our ability to love grows. Our willingness to love helps them share their best with us, and helps us treasure what they share.
As we learn to love more deeply, we begin to see the world around us differently. We have come to see the world as a dangerous place, filled with threats and violence. Dangerous things do happen. Our ability to love does not prevent pain or loss. Our love helps us remember, and trust, the sacred love that surrounds us.
Where is your love on this Valentine’s Day?
How deeply are you willing to be known? How deeply will you know?
[Image by LadyDragonflyCC – >;<]
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