IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE

WHAT IS LOVE? WHERE IS THE LOVE? WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS WE WILL ATTEMPT TO ANSWER IN THIS POST.

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How do we Send love? Can we mail love in an envelope or put it on a postcard? How do we show love? Do we post it on a billboard or act it out in a video? Can we put it in a picture or display it in our words or writing? How do we give love? Can we put it in a box and wrap a bow around it? Can we will it or designate it for an inheritance? Is it possible to fully embrace the three legs of love.

At the core of everything we think we know about love, there is an attribute of love that we need to take into careful consideration. Love is an expression! Love is not confined or limited to any particular place or environment. Although environment can influence the difficulty or ease of love's flow; like water, love can adapt without compromise. Many things can hinder love but nothing can stop it. It is important to understand that love involves itself in every dimension, level and realm of existence. Love may be manifested distinctly across various planes. Love may be expressed uniquely among different cultures, life forms, and species. Many people erroneously believe that there are up to 20 different types of love. This is not true. There are multiple expressions of love, but there is only "one love." Traditional ancient Greek teachings might help. They divided love into three major categories. They are called "EROS, PHILOS and AGAPE." EROS is the type of love that most closely resembles what Western cultures now view as romantic love. The word stems from the Greek word erotas, which translates to “intimate love.” Many Greeks viewed PHILOS as the ideal love. PHILIA, in today’s terms, would resemble something like “brotherly love.” It is about displaying loyalty, giving sacrifice, showing appreciation, and other more “noble” forms of love not involving SEX. AGAPE is a bit more complicated, but AGAPE is considered as an all encompassing universal love, beyond charity and above altruism. Essentially, it is a love that we are obligated to exchange, share and give away freely to others—regardless of our relationship to them. It is not owned, controlled or manufactured by us, but can be manifested through us. This is one example of love's expression unabated. These abstractions do not define love but help to describe love in terms of what it is and what it is not. The maternal instinct that mothers have towards their offspring is a fiercely protective kind of love. The "maturation process" that encourages parents and offspring to part company eventually is love too. Abandoning the parental protection and security of a nest to mature in the face of danger, is a strictly instructive kind of love. These expressions operate at opposite ends of the same spectrum which makes love a language. Loving is work. A labor of love describes how it works. The expressions of love in some manifestations are sacred and should be honored as such. With humans, SEX is the most powerful physical expression of love. SEX is the "form" of all biological bonds in "life's" procreation processes. With humans, SEX is the physical seal of a emotional, psychological and spiritual union. This is what makes the act of SEX sacred to us! SEX blends, joins and shares both our bodies and soul. The physical expression of the essence of our being is too valuable a gift to casually give away.

"WHERE THERE IS LOVE THERE IS LIFE" GANDHI

The expression of love we are highlighting here is the "love of life." Unlike romantic love or even "love of self," this love is discovered by an epiphany. Our "Love of self" is natural, necessary and normal. We don't learn it, we embrace it as our territory. The "love of life" has to be developed. Our "love of life" can be partially determined and measured by how we live. It is demonstrated in what we enjoy doing, how we do it and who we share it with. A "love of life" can be described as a "spiritual" expression demonstrated by an appreciation of ALL of natures actions. We express love more by what we do than what we say. Love may be classified as an act, an action or a feeling, but it's always requires effort to exhibit. Love is palatable but it is not tangible. Love cannot be packaged but a package can be filled with expressions of love. "Feelings", one of loves byproducts, are often misinterpreted. Feelings alone are insufficient expressions of love. Although feelings are reliable indications of whatever caused them, their origins may not be rooted in love. Feelings can easily deceive the best of us if used as evidence boldly or with diffidence. Love is not difficult, but love is obligated to stubbornly enforces its code of conduct. Anyone who has been a recipient of love's discipline knows this. So many of us  resists love's strong hand of chastisement and only embrace what comes easy. What good is a love that ignores and fails to correct what's bad? Love champions discipline. We cannot be truly loved without being properly led. Which of us would expose our children to the hardships of life without first teaching them life's lessons. Life births only two types of children. These are not male or female but rather babies and bastards. "Life's bastards," will not accept the reprimands that come along with the training that life sends to us all. Life's babies may also complain, criticize, fight, rebel and resist life's reprimand; but eventually they must receive, heed and respond to chastening and/or reproof. Separating the babies from the bastards is not our job. Judgement treads a short path to justice; but justice works hand in hand with forgiveness and time. Be not deceived we all reap what we sow but that's what makes the "love of life" so beautiful. Love can be partially defined not only by the lengths it will go through to do what it can do; but also by the pains love is willing to endure not to allow and not do anything that compromises it. Some might call this the ugly side of love; but that's a "misrepresentation." Love does not have or take sides. We can truly love someone and still chose to leave them or say goodbye. We can actually miss someone and yet be thankful that they are not around. No matter how we look at love, if viewed properly, from any perspective we will see love working. Having a "love of life" means that no matter the situation, circumstances or conditions we will always be able to embrace love's beauty.