Happy February – the month of LOVE.  What is the meaning of Love?

    Viktor Frankl in MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING (1984), proclaimed “…that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire [and]….the salvation of man is through love and in love,” and Teilhard de Chardin is quoted (2019): “Someday…we will master for God the energies of love, and then for the second time in the history of the world man will have discovered fire”!!!

    When I think of the meaning of Love, it brings up other questions:

    What is this special power of Love?

    What is human Love compared with divine Love?

    What is brotherly and sisterly Love compared with fatherly and motherly Love?

    How can you experience more Love in your life for yourself and others?

    What can we learn each moment from experiencing more Love in our lives?

What is Love?

     Love is Tolerance and Seeing Good – Developing an “inner vision,” withholding judgment, choosing “to see good” in ourselves and others, and practicing forgiveness with others and ourselves. We have a choice very moment.

     Love is Compassion – Looking for the higher “prince” and “princess” selves within each person and ourselves, (White Eagle, 1972, pp. 30-34), and remembering to practice gratitude (gratitude erases fear).

     Love is Practicing Empathy – Showing warmth, caring, and understanding through verbal and nonverbal listening. The Tao of Communication is caring more about the other person than yourself, so that you can understand their underlying feelings. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”  (Maya Angelou, 2014).

     Love is Respect – Respecting others, yourself and your personality, and God within ourselves.  Some define doing God’s will as sharing your inner life with God, respecting God within yourself, by spending time within developing this relationship, and then choosing to do God’s will. “In the presence of [God, anxiety], anger, and resentment dissolve…”(White Eagle, 1972, pg. 36).  We can raise our thoughts (our heart’s mind) above earthly conflicts, and choose instead to think, and act with love. It does take practice.

   Thus, [this] “true light [within] is a gentle love, which rising in you, causes you to look on the world with understanding and compassion and respect.  When you respect the soul of your brother or sister [and yourself] you respect their life [and your life] in every way. This gentle spirit, this respect for one another must come.

For this is the generation of one true light and this true light is that of love.” (White Eagle, 1972, pg. 36).

by Stephanie Shaefer

SOURCES:

Angelou, M. (March 15, 2014), FaceBook post.

Frankl, V.E. (1984). Man’s Search for Meaning: An introduction to logotherapy.

       New York: Simon & Schuster.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved February 11,     

       2019, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: https://www.brainyquote.com/  

       quotes/pierre_teilhard_de_chardi_114239.

White Eagle (1972). The Quite Mind. Hampshire, England: The White Eagle

       Publishing Trust.

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/heart-hands-romantic-love-sunset-4340306/

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