The Power of Love
Living with Spiritual Elegance
Of all of the Elegant Aspirations at our disposal Leveraging Love is probably the most powerful. Much of the circumstance of our lives depends upon where we choose to give Love, where we search for Love and when we withhold Love. At the present time in our evolution the word Love is banded about all the time: Romantic Love principally but also family Love, Love of country, Love of a cause and so on. Where people go it seems Love goes too!
All of this talk of Love is fairly new to me. When I was growing up in England in the early Sixties, Love was never articulated verbally. It was considered impolite and indulgent to discuss emotions. But did that mean the Love we felt was any the less? Does it have to be mentioned to manifest? The key here is “felt”. I knew how loved I was by my family. There was no need for words.
There is an energy that passes between us when Love is leveraged. I experienced the life altering power of Love three years ago when my life partner Dennis Watlington suffered multiple strokes. In the blink of an eye he went from strong and brilliant to totally dependant on me. His brain was so injured that the only way to make contact with him was on an energetic level and I realized that the quality of that energy would be the key to his recovery. With everything stripped bare it was all we had left. I knew that if he felt like a burden he would turn his face to the wall and give up: A life without love being no life at all.
I introduced the concept of “Love is all around me” into every aspect of his convalescence: Every interaction, every meal, every therapy session, every day. This powerful Love energy attracted more Love energy and most everyone in Dennis’ new orbit entered with their own special brand of Love, much of it unspoken. With no other way to contribute Dennis’ intuitive reaction was to leverage Love with more Love and he continues to dispense Love and appreciation to those around him. He explains that it is Love that has helped him feel relevant and valuable in his brokenness. The power of love in his gradual recovery is as important as the life-saving clinical work of the medical staff.
Where we have one word for the power of Love, the ancient Greeks (understanding the complexities) developed four. Agape meaning Love that doesn’t demand reciprocity: Philia epitomized in the Love friends have for one another: Storge being a kind of innate affection as a parent has for a child. And of course Eros the sensual, often physical form of Love which operates outside of the bounds of logic. This is the form of Love that intrigues and confounds us the most. Tellingly Eros is often depicted in art and literature as a playful, blindfold-wearing Cupid with a bow, who shoots off arrows in seemingly random directions targeting innocent victims.
The elegant aspiration of Love in its many forms clearly demands more attention. Next month I will explore Romantic Love in all its complicated and sometimes messy glory. In the meantime pay attention to when you leverage Love. It’s the most powerful force at your disposal. As the fuel that drives the engine of human relationships its Love actually that makes the world turn.