…or as some single guys refer to it: “Hold Him Hostage” Day.
I am not romantic. I am soft-hearted and giving and – I hope – loving, but I am not romantic.
Valentine’s Day is touted as the most romantic day of the year. It is the most lucrative day of the year for florists. Like any day in which there is an expectation, it can be stressful. You are dating, but don’t know if you love him/her…to give a Valentine’s gift or not? It is also stressful for those who don’t have someone in their life…do you stay at home that night so people won’t know you’re single?…will you ever be loved?
I believe in love! I believe in physical love! I want to love and be loved, in every sense of the word, but I am not going to talk about that kind of love here. I believe LOVE is so much bigger than that.
“WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE, SWEET LOVE. IT’S THE ONLY
THING THAT THERE’S JUST TOO LITTLE OF.”
Whether you know this scientifically or not, emotion has a vibration to it. You’ve experienced it any time you have been angered by someone who takes a parking space you have been patiently waiting for. You feel it when you receive a compliment for something you’ve strived to accomplish. You feel the vibration when you have been criticized or demeaned…that sick, churning you might get in the pit of your stomach. Emotion can make you physically ill.
Love has an emotional vibration. I’m not talking about the mass media version here, although the hormones involved in Valentine’s Day love can create physical manifestations! When we think of that kind of love we think of an intense emotional condition, containing physical attraction, control, possessiveness, addiction, eroticism, and novelty. This is often fleeting or grows and ebbs over time. Frustration in this kind of love may mask underlying anger and dependency. This is the kind of love that can “turn to hate”, but it is more of a addictive sentimentality that stems from pride or a result of fear of being unloved and alone.
LOVE, all caps, is unconditional, unchanging, permanent: it does not fluctuate because it is a state of being, not a state of having.
I am a magnet for love that draws more of itself to me; I am a mirror that reflects
the love of Divine Intelligence out into the world. (Paraphrased from The Daily
Word.)
In Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., there is a chart of emotional vibrations Dr. Hawkins calls a “Map of Consciousness”. It is interesting to look at, finding how you ‘vibrate’ when you experience or create certain emotions in yourself. For example, the level of Shame is 20 and comes from Humiliation with a Miserable “Life-View”. Anger is 150, stemming from Hate and a Life-View that is Antagonistic. Acceptance is 350…Reason, 400.
LOVE is 500. It comes from Reverence with a Life-View that is Benign. The process is Revelation and the God-View is Loving. (Just so you know, Enlightenment is 700-1000.)
“It is a forgiving, nurturing, and supportive way of relating to the world. Love isn’t intellectual and doesn’t proceed from the mind; Love emanates from the heart. It has the capacity to lift others and accomplish great feats because of its purity of motive.” (Power vs. Force)
“Love lifts us up where we belong.”
This LOVE ‘takes no position’, sees no barriers, is inclusive and global, augmenting that which is positive by dissolving negativity. Dr. Hawkins writes that this is the level of true happiness, but only 0.4 percent of the world’s population ever reaches this level of evolution. And yet, we are fascinated by love…drunk on it…bereft of it…ignorant of it.
I do not foresee reaching 500! but I practice forgiveness and gratitude. I embrace the love I am able to enjoy…there are all different kinds of love. I may sound undiscriminating, but I feel ‘loving’ this way creates joy in my soul and may bring me to the big LOVE. I love a good laugh. I love fireworks and fireflies. I love lazy Sunday mornings. I love a stone cottage. I love my kid. I love the smell of a pine forest. I love polar bears. I love looking at a fine specimen of a man. I love feeling I have made a difference, if even for a moment, in someone’s life. I love getting a compliment. I love giving one. I love what I see in the women I choose to spend time with. I love how physical touch feels. I love a blue Texas sky. I love the imprint of my grandmother on me, in me. I am working on truly loving myself.
“…learning to love myself is the greatest love of all.”
On this Valentine’s Day, I wish you love and LOVE as I wish it for myself. But as the Buddha said, “It is better to travel well than to arrive.” so keep on keeping on!
More great quotes…
“The language of love is the only way.” lyrics by Heart
“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.” Buddha
“Do you want to enter paradise?
To walk the path of Truth
You need the grace of God.
We all face death in the end.
But on the way, be careful
Never to hurt a human heart!
Rumi
“If you want a love message to be heard. it has got to be sent out.
To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.”
Mother Teresa
“All you need is love…ya ta da ta dah (blare of brass section). All you need is love.
(brass again). All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.” Beatles
…and I love you.
