October 11--This Extraordinary Thing Called Love

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love
and feel the depth, delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that
for you the world is transformed.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Today's Meditation:

Personally, I believe that we all have "this extraordinary thing called love" in our hearts, all the time.  And the only thing that keeps us from feeling it in the glory of its fullness is ourselves--our fears, our hesitancies, our judgment, our lack of experience of just how glorious it is to feel unconditional love at all times for all people.  We've learned through our lives to be suspicious of all people, and we've learned the ridiculous art of "keeping safe" our emotions and feelings, and those things have taught us to withhold the love that we feel, to disguise it or even hide it until we're "certain" that it's worth our while to accept the love we feel, and that it's safe.

But it's never "safe."  And it's always worthwhile.

One of the biggest obstacles to love is our desire for a return on our love.  If I do loving things for you, then I expect loving things in return, or at least a smidgen or two of gratitude.  But as soon as I expect anything back, then my love is conditional, isn't it?  And when love is conditional, there is nothing of the "depth, delight, the ecstasy of it."  But when we open our hearts to the love that already is a part of us and we allow ourselves to feel and express that love, then our lives are transformed.

Sometimes I think that we're like cars sitting in a parking lot, everything in working order and the gas tanks full.  The only thing that's missing is the key, and we're keeping that in our pockets because once we take it out someone might steal it.  It's this fear of bad things happening that keeps us from showing the love in our hearts, so we never experience the wonderful things that can happen when we risk taking out that key and firing up the engine.  There will be stop signs and potholes and slowdowns because of construction and even the occasional accident, but there will also be the many moments of ecstasy that we never would have experienced had the key stayed useless in our pockets.

Is your love being expressed fully, or is it sitting useless in your pocket?

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Questions to consider:

Why and how do we learn to fear expressing our love?

Think about the people who have taught you about love.  Who have they been?  Have they been good at it themselves?

Think of one way that you can express your love today, no matter how small or insignificant an expression it may seem.

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For further thought:

When love fills your life all limitations are gone.
The medicine this sick world needs so badly is love.

Peace Pilgrim




More on love.