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… These are just a few pages from my upcoming book …

What Love is … to me.

“For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth”.

On Love by Kahlil Gibran – Poems | Academy of American Poets

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth”.

1Corinthians 13:4-7

It should be obvious why I chose Corinthians on Love; however, I chose these few lines from Kahlil Gibran’s poem “On Love”, because I think it gets right to the point.

(check out the whole poem, it is fantastic, On Love by Kahlil Gibran – Poems | Academy of American Poets)

Unconditional love is a “character trait” that we are born with, but like everything else, this character trait gets shaped by our environment, and we eventually lose our “whole” connection with God, Source. We start to unconsciously withhold love to those we think are unworthy for whatever reason. We don’t offer a “bad person” a second chance based on our “opinion” about that person on some level. This act of denying an opportunity for someone to grow, because of a past event (or for any reason), is a denial of unconditional love.

I personally do not judge these situations as anything other than an experience, I will not “hate” those who denied me the opportunity to move forward, because they have a perception of my past life events; (I have been falsely arrested a few times, funny stories though). I love them and give them an opportunity to understand my past experience, so they can then make an informed decision. If they still chose to deny me, then it is no longer an unconscious act of denying love, it is then intentional. So, in order for me to understand unconditional love, I had to be put through scenarios that affected me, but the lesson was greater than the individual experience(s).

“Love will crown you with wisdom of it; but only after it has cut you with its thorns”, I had to get down to my lowest low, so I could choose to ascend to whatever I choose to ascend to (I am still growing). I had to be shaken down to my core; I was badly hurt in the only place I allowed myself to be vulnerable; and then I had to pick myself up, and climb that mountain again; only this time, I am strong enough to grab the hand of the person behind me and lift them up as well.

Love for me is not judging in any way. I am not allowed to allow myself, to judge an event as good or bad; it just was what it was, when it was that thing that it was, until it moved on and turned into something else. Just an event that came from a place of love from God, Source; because whatever the situation, I had to have the encounter for “some reason”; whether it be myself or the other person that needed the encounter, is not for me to “ascertain” or make judgement about; ONLY GOD KNOWS!! This understanding/attitude toward events/people of any kind, allows for an effortlessly EGO-FREE encounter, and therefore, an encounter of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.

I feel that once we balance ourselves in love, ego falls away and the SOUL (the WILL), only sees truth; so, for me, it is effortless to get into and remain in the flow, in grace, in unity, etc..