An Inquiry on Infinite Love

Love is all around us.  Yet so many feel “unloved.”  How can that be?

It’s often said that the world needs more love, but when love is there, do we notice?  How attached are we to our ideal of what love “should” look like?  How much attention are we bringing to the many expressions of love all around us, as opposed to looking for ways things fit or don’t fit our predetermined concept of the expression of love?  How can you truly receive love if you are focused on placing conditions and requirements on it before you are willing to receive?

How much of your concept of what love is comes from a cultural-based ideal, and how much is based on experiential receiving?  Can you tell the difference?  Are you able to notice how other cultures can be just as loving as yours, while expressing their love in many different ways?  And in doing so, are you able to see how you are in fact giving and receiving love (or neglecting your expression or receiving) in different ways yourself?

Some people believe physical affection (hugs, kisses) and verbal expression (“I love you”) are higher expressions of love.  But are they? Is deep eye contact the only “real” way to express love, or is love something that transcends eye contact?  What about hugs?  Some cultures really don’t hug, does that mean they don’t care about each other? 

Are Asian cultures less loving because they don’t hug as much, or they don’t say “I love you” a lot?  But those cultures express love in other ways and their families tend to stay much closer than Western families who hug a lot. 

Maybe one person’s way of saying “I love you” is by giving thoughtful advice.  Or by fixing up the house.  Or by sacrificing and making sure their children get a good education.

 

Some people feel they “need” to have love expressed to them in a certain way, but is that so?  Why would you “need” to be hugged, but billions of Asians feel loved without that constant embracing?  How much are we willing to examine our “needs,” to find out what is actually a need and what is preference?

Is it possible there is lots of love all around us and the perception of lack is actually an internal distortion?  Is it possible what we interpret as being shunned by others is really our own inability to acknowledge and receive the abundance of love being given to us all the time?  What if, instead of trying to get everyone to change their expression to accommodate our preferences, we placed our attention on gaining a greater understanding of the many ways love is expressed, and how we can better appreciate and receive that love as it is?

What if we take that a step further and examine self-love?  What if the things we are doing that we interpret as a denial of self-love are in fact distortions and misunderstandings?  What if we could learn to better appreciate the ways in which we love ourselves (and the ways we unconsciously overlook or reject that love) and place our attention on receiving, instead of judging or evaluation?

What if we could accept and embrace our inherent lovingness and lovability without judgment or shame?  What if we could explore and expand our ability to express and receive love from a place of non-judgment, understanding that love is infinite and we are each beautiful, loving and loved as we are, even as we strive to learn other facets for giving and receiving love?

What if we could see other people in the same way – as inherently loving and beautiful people, and accept their love in its own way?  Can we learn to differentiate culture, customs, traditions and habits from the inherent expression and receiving of love – and even how those cultures, customs, traditions and habits are based in love themselves?

If the universe is infinitely loving and the expressions of love infinite as well, can we understand that love is always all around us, and the only reason we are feeling “unloved” is because we are simply unable in that moment to comprehend the myriad expressions around us?  If we have to learn that giving food is an expression of love, or offering sound advice, wouldn’t it stand to reason that our ability to give and receive universal love is limited only by our lack of understanding? 

What if we didn’t need to understand, that it was good enough to know this to be true and simply loved, and received love, without filter, conditions or prejudice?  Is that truly possible?  Can we humble ourselves enough to love in such a way (and wouldn’t that humility itself be a loving expression)?

Do I need to keep inquiring, and do you need to keep reading, or are we ready to let our hearts go now?