What Is Love? A Flowing, Unconditional Force
Love has many faces.
There’s the blush of romantic love, the radiant devotion of a parent toward their child, the conditional love between siblings as they squabble, and the gentle comfort of a friend who shares coffee and conversation.
Love also shows up in ways that we have a hard time fathoming; the overbearing love of a wife/mother, as she bullies her husband and kids; the conditional love of a man who is looking for a woman to fill his needs. Love does exist in these scenarios, it just is a lower vibration of love stemming from a feeling of unworthiness, a place of neediness.
A Beautiful Definition of Love
I believe the most eloquent, most beautiful description of love that has come my way was in the book “The Aleph” by Paulo Coelho; and I will include a few of my favorite paragraphs below:
“I love you,” I tell her, “I love you because all of the loves in the world are like different rivers flowing into the same lake, where they meet and are transformed into a single love that becomes rain and blesses the Earth.”
“I love you like a river that creates the right conditions for trees and bushes and flowers to flourish along its banks. I love you like a river that gives water to the thirsty and takes people where they want to go.”
“I love you like a river which understands that it must learn to flow differently over waterfalls and to rest in the shallows. I love you because we are all born in the same place, at the same source, which keeps us provided with a constant supply of water. And so, when we feel weak, all we have to do is wait a little. The spring returns, the winter snows melt and fill us with new energy.”
“I love you like a river that beings as a solitary trickle in the mountains and gradually grows and joins other rivers, until after a certain point, it can flow around any obstacle in order to get where it wants.”
“I receive your love and I give you mine. Not the love of a man for a woman, not the love of a father for a child, not the love of God for his creatures, but love with no name and no explanation, like a river that cannot explain why it follows a particular course, but simply flows onwards. A love that asks for nothing and gives nothing in return. It is simply there. I will never be yours and you will never be mine. But I can honestly say, I love you. I love you. I love you.”
This is the kind of love I wish to give. The love I am learning to embody. The love I am deeply grateful to receive.
Thank you for being part of my tribe.
I love you.
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