Love is really an inherent property of who we are. It’s really the dynamic energy of our being. The juice of our existence. The sad truth is we’re generally cut off from that. We have so much baggage about who is appropriate to love, what types of loves are acceptable, and a lot of very impoverished ideas about what love is and can be. It seems even our language betrays this as none of the many words on Classical Greek which describe different types of love have analogs in English. We have love as a bucket for a range of human experience that covers romantic love, agapic love, fraternal love, love for a child. Certainly no language for nuances within any of those categories.
I have seen how loving and developing the capacity of love has been healing for people. It gives life meaning, it gives us the energy of great creativity, courage, patience. When we love we step outside of ourselves. And when we step outside of ourselves remarkable things can happen. We can become and do great things. I think it’s hard for us to see this because we just throw all types of love into one bucket.
And I have seen how loving a person has healed that person. It makes me grateful to have that capacity. I see them perk up, shine, unfold, blossom. I see that in my volunteer work, my spiritual practice, but I see it in my romantic relationship. I love this woman and it is food. And she feeds me back. This is why loved people flourish.
