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The poet, Mary Oliver, in her poem “Wild Geese” writes:
‘Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
The world offers itself to your imagination,
Calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
Over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
‘So, this Valentine’s Day, let’s see if we can broaden our ideas of what love means. Can we get in the flow of the love all around us? Go from the sentimental kind of love to the deeply meaningful ways to be and feel love? Let’s set our intention to open our hearts and pay attention, to ourselves and to those around us, with the quality of loving awareness.’-Michelle Becker 
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Love is a profound connection that transcends time and space, bringing joy, comfort, and meaning to our lives. It is the essence of humanity
Love is a force that transcends boundaries, time and space. It heals wounds, bringing joy, comfort, and meaning to our lives, both to the giver and the receiver. Love is the essence of humanity.
This is why I want to share some compelling, loving Blogs from our archive on Valentine's Day to be reminded that Love is for everyday.
Love is Life’s Greatest Gift
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The symphony of life is all about love and loving, inspiring peace, justice, fairness and the hope for a better life.
All my life I have had the choice of love or hate. I chose love.
When I chose hate, I suffered pain and anguish.
When I chose love, I flourished and found peace and contentment.
Love: Life’s Greatest Gift'*
‘All of us want, or need, to be loved. The need for love is one of the most basic human impulses. We may cover this need with patterns of self-protection or images of self-reliance. Or we may openly acknowledge this need to ourself or to others. But it is always present, whether hidden or visible. Usually, we seek for love in human relationships, project our need onto parents, partners, friends, lovers. Our lack or denial of love often causes wounds that we carry with us. This unmet need haunts us, sometimes driving us into addictions or other self-destructive patterns. Conversely, if our need for love is met, we feel nourished in the depths of our being.
‘Love calls to us in many different ways. Yet while most people seek for love in the tangle of human relationships, the mystic is drawn deeper under the surface—in Rumi’s words, “return to the root of the root of your own being.” And here we begin to discover one of life’s greatest secrets: how love is at the source of all that exists, is the source of all that exists. Love is not just a feeling between people, but a substance, an energy, a divine spark that is present within everything. And it is this deepest essence—this substance of love—that we need to nourish…’- Continue to read
World in Chaos and Despair: The Healing Power of Love
We all want to make sense of this journey we call life, of who we are and why we are, why we love and why we are loved.
'Weaving the Tapestry of Love'
'Weaving the Tapestry of Love'- Photo via Pinterest
‘Love as healing power’
‘Through effects on the autonomic nervous system, oxytocin regulates blood flow and oxygen to the brain, thus further supporting human cognition, culture and eventually civilisation.
'Thus oxytocin-vasopressin effects on the autonomic nervous system are likely a critical component of the healing power of love. The autonomic nervous system is one portal through which the peptide systems and love may be accessed and influenced…’- Love as healing power
“There’s power in love. Love can help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.”-
‘That’s what love is. Love is not selfish and self-centred. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world.
'If you don’t believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way.
Imagine our homes and families where love is the way.
Imagine our neighbourhoods and communities where love is the way.
Imagine our governments and nations where love is the way.
Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way.
Imagine this tired old world where love is the way.’-
“There’s power in love. Love can help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.”
Most Rev. Michael Curry, St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, 19 May 2018
World in Chaos and Despair: The Healing Power of Love
Unconditional Love - An Unlimited Way of Being
A must-read book
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"There is a paradigm shift underway upon the earth and in its wake we shall know a new reality. The days of discord and negative expression are rapidly dissolving despite the appearance otherwise. In their place, we are coming to know and experience a love of such unbelievable magnitude as to scarcely recognize the old ways of living through fear and doubt. The polarization of negative and positive forces, and their respective expressions, are blending and balancing into a new awareness of unconditional love.
“Throughout the ages many have sought or assumed an afterlife of perfection and termed this reality a form of heaven. Individuals of every period have been exploring the meaning and purpose of life hoping this illumination will release them from the difficulties seemingly encountered here. Some civilizations have even come forth in an attempt to perfect their existence to reach this type of destiny. Yet, all the while we have chased after an external heaven or sense of personal redemption; we have forgotten the truth within our being.
“Heaven has never been a place or condition outside us. In the continuous pursuit to reach some glorious attainment, we miss the glory and beauty of the moment. This present moment has always been the destiny and reward for a life lived in love. Every Master Teacher of any age or civilization spoke this truth. Still, for the limited human, the reality of such a simple possibility is often elusive and confusing…”- Continue to read
A reflection on true love on Valentine’s Day
Let us see what the sages and philosophers have reminded us of what true love is.
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As Prof. Simon May writing in the Financial Times has remarked: ‘Today millions of people celebrate one form of love and one only: romantic love, the love that speaks the language of erotic desire.
‘As we settle down to our candlelit dinners – or, as singletons or conscientious objectors to Valentine’s day, wander past packed restaurants envying or pitying the serried rows of couples – we might ask: why do we so privilege romance?
‘Why, for example, do we not have a St Francis day for love of nature? Or a world friendship day named after Aristotle (who considered friendship the supreme form of love)? Or an anniversary when love between parents and children is celebrated with more than the card and flowers given, one-sidedly, on Father’s or Mother’s day?
‘Indeed, why do such alternative love festivals sound faintly absurd to our contemporary ear?
‘The answer lies in the unique promise of romantic love, as it has been conceived of since the late 18th century, to satisfy five modern and, taken together, western ambitions.’…A reflection on true love on Valentine’s Day
Love: A History by Simon May
A must-read book
Photo via amazon
‘Love - unconditional, selfless, unchanging, sincere, and totally accepting - is worshipped today as the West's only universal religion. To challenge it is one of our few remaining taboos. In this pathbreaking and superbly written book, philosopher Simon May does just that, dissecting our resilient ruling ideas of love and showing how they are the product of a long and powerful cultural heritage. Tracing over 2,500 years of human thought and history, May shows how our ideal of love developed from its Hebraic and Greek origins alongside Christianity until, during the last two centuries, 'God is love' became 'love is God' - so hubristic, so escapist, so untruthful to the real nature of love, that it has booby-trapped relationships everywhere with deluded expectations. Brilliantly, May explores the very different philosophers and writers, both skeptics and believers, who dared to think differently: from Aristotle's perfect friendship and Ovid's celebration of sex and 'the chase', to Rousseau's personal authenticity, Nietzsche's affirmation, Freud's concepts of loss and mourning, and boredom in Proust. Against our belief that love is an all-powerful solution to finding meaning, security, and happiness in life, May reveals with great clarity what love actually is: the intense desire for someone whom we believe can ground and affirm our very existence. The feeling that 'makes the world go round' turns out to be a harbinger of home - and in that sense, of the sacred.’-Love: A History
Weaving the Tapestry of Love on Valentine’s Day
Valentine's Day Vintage Post Card, 1910s. Photo via Etsy
Valentine’s Day- The Day of Love in all its forms – Family, Friends, Neighbours, Mother Nature and Poetry,..., as well as Romance, All Symbols of Hope and Healing
‘It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again.’- Dave Grohl
‘We are all a living tapestry...Living threads...Being Sewn together…’
Love is the Tapestry that we are Weaving for Better Days at this Valentine’s Day
We all want to make sense of this journey we call life, of who we are and why we are, why we love and why we are loved.
Thus, when better than today, Valentine's Day, to reflect on these questions by Weaving the Tapestry of Love, and discover how to work love out that can last a lifetime of compassionate companionship
Finding Meaning in Life through a Loving and Meaningful Relationship With All that Matters.-Continue to read
And now we wish to share this wonderful Valentine’s Day gift of joy and love with you
Salut d'Amour (Love's Greeting), Op. 12
Photo via Wikipedia
‘What a love letter! Elgar wrote this delicate musical meditation for Caroline Alice Roberts, who would eventually become his wife. Its mixture of longing and fulfilment encapsulates his love.’