Love ... or Fear

Love can be such a multi-faceted emotional experience. It can mean sacrificing what we think we need or want, for the sake of the peace and happiness of those we profess our love to. This can apply to any type of love, even with our own siblings, children and parents.

Sometimes, it means isolation, communicational disconnection and even a tinge of alienation to truly discover the real depth of the love we feel. And to truly love someone, it involves practising compassion, showing a patient understanding, as well as affectionate guidance and selfless caring and kindness to the people we love and hold dear in our hearts.

For there are only two choices in this world: Love or fear.

"They will reach for crumbs with trembling hands and call it a meal. They will convince themselves that love is sharp; love wounds; love leaves marks. They chew on empty promises, choke on half-hearted apologies, swallow lies, and call it forgiveness. They stay because they have learned that love is patient; love is enduring; love is sacrifice. And so, they sacrifice their joy, their peace, their very body. They give and give. The hunger twists them. The hunger distorts their vision. Is this love? Or is this fear? Fear of being alone, fear of what it means to be left, to be abandoned, to be empty again. Afraid to starve again. So, they stay. And, they starve. Perhaps one day, they will realize that love should not leave them hungry. But until then, they convince themselves that this is enough, that this is all there is. They will continue to eat the crumbs, the love that is not love at all. Because they are starving, and starved people will eat anything."

As Nikola Tesla puts it “It’s not the love you make. It’s the love you give.”

I’d like to share an excerpt from the book “Ascension! An analysis of the art of Ascension as taught by the Ishayas”:

“There are only two roots to all our emotions: love and fear. Love is the natural state of human life; fear is the means the ego uses to control and possess the world. They cannot simultaneously coexist: when love increases, fear evaporates - since it was never real, it vanishes in the Sun of perfect love. When fear increases, love hides and bides its time until the individual opens again to Truth. It can never be destroyed, but since the human is endowed with certain inalienable rights (including perfect free will) if the ego insists on illusions, love will as if disappear from the mind until the personality chooses again for Reality.”

So the question boils down to a simple yet powerful instance of self-inquiry: Am I functioning from a place born out of fear or, one rooted in love?

Are my actions and decisions born out of fear of what others might think, fear of being judged or fear of not being enough? or are they made from a place of genuine love and deep understanding of who I am, what I am here to do in this world, and what's best for me? Do I want to live as me or the image others perceive of me?

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. All our fears are illusions -ghost stories- we keep narrating to ourselves just to have some dramatic substance to entertain ourselves with.

Glennon Doyle Melton in her book "Love Warrior" wrote:

"Grief is love's souvenir. It's our proof that we once loved. Grief is the receipt we wave in the air that says to the world: Look! Love was once mine. I love well. Here is my proof that I paid the price."