"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." Thomas Carlyle
Love Defined: strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties; attraction based on sexual desire; affection and tenderness felt by lovers; affection based on admiration, benevolence or common interests Merriam Webster
Aside from the dictionary definition, When you think of Love, what is the first thought that crosses your mind? Pause and reflect on why that particular thought jumped before you. Is it affectionate, benevolent or obsessive love? Most of us spend our lives searching for romantic love and ignore other important elements that contribute to experiencing a healthy and robust love. We spend our time pursuing a lover, loving and hating each other, ignoring those who care about us without ulterior motives and, at the end of the day, we fall over exhausted from the emotional strain we've placed on ourselves.
Some people confuse pretending to be sweet as love. We act lovingly for fear of rocking the proverbial boat. But, pretending to be loving and not speaking the truth about wrong doing is not love; it's hypocrisy. The best teachers are forthright about what their students do because they see the potential for greatness in them. That is an act of love. If we sit back, pretend all is fab fab, and then participate in acts of meanness, we have failed ourselves and our opportunity to grow. That is not love. The challenge is to love ourselves and others unconditionally without expectation. When there is expectation, there is bound to be pain. How have you shown love to others today?
"Where there is love there is life." Mahatma Gandhi
When I researched the word Love for this post, I found well over 450 million articles on the subject; clearly love matters to many of us, but we don't spend enough time cultivating a spirit of love. One article I read pointed out 15 types of love from: infatuation, romantic, passionate, companionate, unconditional, conditional, puppy, maternal, paternal, soulmate, spiritual/divine, patriotic, self, brotherly to tough love. However, when you look closely at the list, some are actually a subset of others within the grouping. The underlying message is that while love is filtered through many lenses, the essence of love is simply LoVE.
In Ancient Greece, people believed in four kinds of love: Agape; a pure spiritual love, Eros; a passionate/sexual or romantic love, Philia; an affectionate friendship love, and Storge; a parental/familial love. They added a very important fifth type of love: Xenia which is hospitality or charity to others. This act of generosity to strangers remains important today. When we look at the list, the first four are probably the easiest to implement because they generally, not always, come with conditions attached. We feel invested in those relationships, so we act accordingly - in a loving manner. The fifth which is a call to perform frequent random acts of kindness and to treat others by the Golden Rule is harder to do. Why do we find it hard to love unconditionally?
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| Reflections: The Challenge Is To Love...Where is the love? |
Love Defined: strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties; attraction based on sexual desire; affection and tenderness felt by lovers; affection based on admiration, benevolence or common interests Merriam Webster
Aside from the dictionary definition, When you think of Love, what is the first thought that crosses your mind? Pause and reflect on why that particular thought jumped before you. Is it affectionate, benevolent or obsessive love? Most of us spend our lives searching for romantic love and ignore other important elements that contribute to experiencing a healthy and robust love. We spend our time pursuing a lover, loving and hating each other, ignoring those who care about us without ulterior motives and, at the end of the day, we fall over exhausted from the emotional strain we've placed on ourselves.
Some people confuse pretending to be sweet as love. We act lovingly for fear of rocking the proverbial boat. But, pretending to be loving and not speaking the truth about wrong doing is not love; it's hypocrisy. The best teachers are forthright about what their students do because they see the potential for greatness in them. That is an act of love. If we sit back, pretend all is fab fab, and then participate in acts of meanness, we have failed ourselves and our opportunity to grow. That is not love. The challenge is to love ourselves and others unconditionally without expectation. When there is expectation, there is bound to be pain. How have you shown love to others today?
"Where there is love there is life." Mahatma Gandhi
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| Love is a universal language felt by all. Above is the Hebrew symbol of Love. Sculptor: Robert Indiana |
When I researched the word Love for this post, I found well over 450 million articles on the subject; clearly love matters to many of us, but we don't spend enough time cultivating a spirit of love. One article I read pointed out 15 types of love from: infatuation, romantic, passionate, companionate, unconditional, conditional, puppy, maternal, paternal, soulmate, spiritual/divine, patriotic, self, brotherly to tough love. However, when you look closely at the list, some are actually a subset of others within the grouping. The underlying message is that while love is filtered through many lenses, the essence of love is simply LoVE.
In Ancient Greece, people believed in four kinds of love: Agape; a pure spiritual love, Eros; a passionate/sexual or romantic love, Philia; an affectionate friendship love, and Storge; a parental/familial love. They added a very important fifth type of love: Xenia which is hospitality or charity to others. This act of generosity to strangers remains important today. When we look at the list, the first four are probably the easiest to implement because they generally, not always, come with conditions attached. We feel invested in those relationships, so we act accordingly - in a loving manner. The fifth which is a call to perform frequent random acts of kindness and to treat others by the Golden Rule is harder to do. Why do we find it hard to love unconditionally?
More Below
