October 6--All True Love Is Unconditional

In our life, there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which
provides the meaning of art and life.  It is the color of love.

Marc Chagall

* * * * *

Today's Meditation:

Love.  If we want to provide meaning in our lives, then we must learn to love, and to love unconditionally.  Only when we learn how to do so can we truly feel the sense of completion that is already within ourselves, but that we keep repressed under the layers of fear and control and feelings of inadequacy.  Here's one of the many secrets of life:  when we learn to love unconditionally, we no longer need to fear, and we no longer need to protect ourselves.  When unconditional love becomes a true way of life--all the time--then our lives will be so filled with that one color that we'll find that other colors no longer matter, and that therefore we'll have access to all the colors that we want, all the time.

It is quite paradoxical, but it is true that we finally learn to accept love from others when we've learned to give love of ourselves.  We learn to feel good about ourselves when we spend more time making others feel good about themselves.  We feel the most peace when we do our best to help others find peace, without controlling or dominating them.  And the key in all these situations is to do what we do with love and caring.

I always used to feel sorry for myself because there wasn't enough love in my life, because love had somehow passed me by.  What I thought was love, though, was actually dependence.  I felt that my life had no meaning because I didn't have that "one love," the romantic love that we're taught is so important in our lives.  But that's not what brings meaning to us.  The love that brings meaning is the love that we give and share, the love between friends and even enemies, the giving of ourselves and our feelings with others who need to feel love.

Most of the people who give their love unconditionally don't even need to use the word "love."  It's clear in their actions, in their self-reliance, in their gaze, in their way of being.  And when we learn to paint our lives with that color, what a beautiful mixture of colors we'll receive in return as each person shares their own colors of love with us.

* * * * *

Questions to consider:

What are some of the things that keep us from loving unconditionally-- external and internal factors? 

How might we go about strengthening our ability to share our love unconditionally with that people in our lives?

Why do we tend to feel that love must be returned if we're to continue to give our love to others?

* * * * *

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.