Come Home to Love

 There are different kinds of love, of course.  One very important love is romantic love that involves chemistry, attraction, enjoying and wanting to be with the other.  Another very important love is spiritual love which is based on being in union with the Source/God/Infinite Being that manifests in each of us and results in love/compassion/care towards others which is based on awareness that there are no others, that is, based on on our oneness.  That spiritual love is our foundation, and coming home to love means to me coming to that awareness, abiding in that awareness, and acting out of that awareness.  That spiritual love is like air in that we live in it, and probably because of it, and I realize it only during those times that I am aware of it, such as in my own meditation or reflection, and unfortunately I tend to often forget it when in the busyness of my living.  Breathing in deeply the awareness that we are one, developing the habit to do so, helps me to more often remember to breathe in deeply that awareness, and being at that home base is grounding and enlivening.

The word "love", in English, has many meanings. When I was a child, I "loved" my mother, chocolate ice cream, to play with my friends, the color red... etc.. As a young person I "loved" science fiction, an actor in a TV show, the cute boy in class, my dog, horses, someone's hair... the list went on, of course. As a young adult, I "loved" my current boyfriend, going to parties with my friends, helping other young people out...and so on and so forth. As a mature adult, my "ideas" about what the word "love" means has developed, matured. I have suffered the meaning of the word, and have transformed much of that suffering into a deeper understanding of the higher aspects of "love". I have also learned, that the word is so loosely used, in general speaking, that it is actually inadequate, to communicate the particular emotional state I wish to express.  In "talking" about  "love" (which can actually, only be felt), then, I must, for the sake of honest communication, give an exact description, to the sense, in which, I am using the word.

The Greeks have four words for love, "storge", which is a kind of natural affection between ourselves and our close associates, familial love, we can even feel this type of love for our pets. Then there is " philia", which is brotherly love, a deep and abiding friendship, where one wants the best for the other and tries to do that for them. "Eros" is romantic, passion for another, with sexual overtones, it is a very strong desire to merge, with the other, it can easily become connected, over time, with a desire to own or possess the other, if  this happens it usually turns into something negative. The last Greek word for "love" is "agape". Agape is a kind of unconditional love, one that cannot change, it is an enduring love, the love we have for all humanity, our love for the Universal creator, the love we have for our own higher self,  that is, our own little bit of BEING, and ultimately it is a kind of unconditional "love" for all bits of BEING everywhere, as all BEING arises from the same source, and so far as we our selves partake of BEING, we are that BEING, and so is all BEING ad-infinitum. Agape is the love of "God", yet to experience this love, one must find, and awaken "the God BEING", dwelling in one's own heart.

For me, this last form of love, "agape", is the form of love I have learned to call "home". I don't find my way to this home in my heart, that often. It is not easy to remain there when I do, the mind produces, so much that distracts me away from that place, automatic programming, opinions, judgment about everything and anything. To be there, I must be "here", in the present, it takes work, it requires conscious effort, to operate from this moment, to bring my BEING into this state of "love". It requires a certain kind of special energy to maintain my attention here.And  I cannot sustain my attention, here, for too long, I experience this state in flashes, yet even the briefest moment, brings the wisdom and understanding of my connectedness. I am connected to you, and you are connected to me, we are connected to all BEING. Like you, I am one of the myriad creatures, one speck of all the forms of BEING has taken, experiencing, advancing, with you, creating this reality, which is home.