Thanks for this very timely article which is thoughtful, and thought provoking; it is right on target..
Vin, I see it more as a need for Love rather than love as a need. Our brains may evolve to understand, share and respond to Love in new ways and we can create with it, but we cannot create it, capture it, change it, or use it up; we can only change our concepts of it and beliefs about it and choose to live with or without it. Love has gotten me, and I am sure countless others, through times like those you mention, the most desperate moments when there was no one and no other help. I learned that Love is the great harmonizer of all things and the more we live with Love as our source the fewer desperate times we have. It is something that the brain cannot fully comprehend or explain adequately, regardless of evolution. We cannot make too much of air, we cannot make too much of water.....things so essential to our very existence as living beings. And, we cannot make too much of Love, without which air and water only perpetuate chaos.
Love Is. We may experience it as micromoments because we do not understand how to resonate with it for any length of time. It is not an emotion but it may manifest in us, for a microsecond, as emotion because that is how we interpret and understand most things in life, on a momentary emotional basis. That is why life is a bumpy ride for most people rather than a flowing experience. We are constantly shifting emotions based on how we interpret the symbols around us, including each other, grabbing only microseconds of the infinite Love that is our true reality and always available to anyone. Our society is sicker than it has ever been physically and emotionally because we have largely replaced nurturing infinite Love that heals and maintains with fleeting symbolic love that creates emotion deficit disorders and hyperactive emotion disorders that feedback negatively on our health. If microseconds have a positive effect imagine living in the infinite flow of Love... then do it. Love Is.
On Mar 18, 2014 Pauli wrote on Practice Without Integration is a Waste, by Krishna Das:
I have learned that, for me, it is the daily aspect of living that has to be integrated into the larger context of life, not the other way around. And, living in the harmony of expanded life, all the daily things find their place naturally. Struggling to squeeze the infinite harmony we already are into an extremely finite space-time reference we call our daily lives just creates a futile cycle driven by bran loop thinking.
One thing that I have found helps me to stay resonant with infinite harmony is sharing aspects of my daily life that connect through oneness. For instance, in the early morning when I am out gazing at the beauty of the moon and stars and I feel that supreme peacefulness, that I am the harmonious universe, I let this feeling flow through me and to all others. When I eat or drink, especially something very satisfying I let this feeling flow too with energy of love tot all those who hunger. Or when I am in my warm, clean, safe bed knowing I will sleep well I send this harmonious energy to everyone who may need it. But it is just as important to receive the feelings of love as well and let them flow through, amplified with each pass. I cannot physically go out and feed everyone in the world, or clothe them, or assist them in whatever way they need, but I can share the feeling of not being hungry, of being satisfied and safe, of being loved, and knowing that life is not chopped up into so many days or so much space or dependent on circumstances but is harmonious and flowing and we can choose to flow with it..
Living is not the struggle to change oneself, it is the joy of being one(self).