It's Time - Look Out for Love

There are many expressions of giving and sharing love. If we only zoom in on the ones we are expecting to receive, and in the forms we wish to receive them, we can miss out on all the other ways that love is flowing towards us.

As a mother bird pokes at her chicks to encourage them to leave the nest and fly, the onlooker may perceive it as an act of abuse. Yet just as she shows her love by endlessly searching for their food, she also shows it by pricking and prodding them. A cat will also push her kittens away so that they can learn to be independent. Even a human parent will allow his or her toddler to fall over a few times, so that they can learn for themselves to get up again and to begin to walk. There are many people who have written about their mother being mean to them in childhood, yet I wonder if mothers were intentionally being cruel, or if they truly believed they were doing what was in the best interest of the child.

Although to love means to care and give time when it is needed, it also means to detach and to exercise law when it appropriate.

Love means to be engaged and responsive, but it may also mean to stay uninfluenced, neutral and unbiased at times. In an interaction, sometimes one may decide to step in and say something, and at other times to stay silent. In the same way mercy may be valid at certain times, but in other situations assertiveness is needed. To listen is often important, but to sometimes turning a compassionate deaf ear may also be necessary. Yet in all these situations we don’t need to stop loving. This is the wisdom of love filled with respect, rather than with selfishness.

These days love is very often trivialized with plastic hearts and cardboard lips. Yet love is surely something deeper, richer and more meaningful. It needs a subtle eye and a subtle ear to be able to catch real love. We may be looking for it in kisses and hugs, which may be few and far apart and short-lived. They can also be filled with wrong intentions. But heartfelt love could just as easily come to us in a thoughtful word or action, a listening ear, or an appreciative glance all of which we could easily miss with the blink of an eye.

We can understand from the above that love manifests itself in many forms, but we are only able to see it and catch it if we are able to stay positive, open and willing to receive it in whatever form it shows itself. Once we get into a negative rut of self-pity, then even if the light of love is shining our way, we will miss it as we busily wallow in our pain.

The problem occurs when we expect love to come, rather than to allow it. When I want to receive love only in a certain way, and from a certain individual, then I am ignoring the spiritual laws that tell us that we cannot demand love. And when our demands are not met it becomes the cause of many a heartache and the reason for conflict and separation in relationships. Only love without expectation is true love, and this kind of love automatically brings a return, and it may turn up in the most unexpected ways.

We talk a lot about love, but love is the language of feelings words and even our thoughts can sometimes get in the way. Should I push or pull, should I come closer or detach? These questions are not love. If I don’t feel light and happy then it’s probably not love it’s more likely to be attachment or dependence.

Therefore, if every morning we can set our feelings straight and our intentions right, then no matter which choice we make we will feel good because we are coming from that deeper place of love within ourselves, that pure consciousness that can never be wrong. We will radiate true love and others will tune in to our positive intention.

Ironically, love is both, the question and the answer, the lock and the key. It is only by giving what we most desire, that we can receive it. We are all on a journey of rediscovering that key and how to open doors that let in the light.

It’s time to stay positive, open and willing to receive love in its various forms coming your way right now. Don’t expect or demand love instead check your feelings and intentions, set them right with your pure consciousness and whatever springs from there will be absolute love.