Twelve Qualities Of Spirit - Love

My connection with the spiritual quality of love happened quite suddenly when I was in my twenties. Well, perhaps many lifetimes led up to that point in time and it was not really sudden at all. Regardless, my own evolution brought me to an existential crisis point that somehow, some way I needed to resolve.

On the outside my life looked wonderful. I was happily married at the time to a wonderful guy. I lived near the ocean in Vancouver Canada - one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And I was studying Art and training in the Human Potential Movement allowing me to satisfy both my desire for self-expression and my yearning for understanding. And - I was depressed and miserable. Logically nothing was wrong. Spiritually everything was.

I was disconnected from the energy of life and I could not feel real love. I saw suffering all around me and I suffered emotionally myself. For me, it took a near death experience to wake me up and get me hooked back up to love.

Death is a strange word since I know the transition from physical to nonphysical to be a shift of consciousness not an ending at all. The details of my experience are not nearly as important as the shift of consciousness that occurred for me.

After an overexposure to chemicals in the unventilated painting studio where I spent many of my waking hours, my physical body began to give out. One night I left my body and found myself inside an amazing white light. Being in that light was like being embraced and flooded with endless waves of love. In that moment, I knew, beyond any doubt, that the energy of life itself is both loving and wise.

I cried for days after that event - tears of joy and relief. I did not wonder anymore about the goodness of life. I knew life was inherently good and even if I did not understand events and circumstances I knew underneath and through it all a wise and loving energetic force was at work. From that point on I was able to trust life.

Love is our essence. It flows through everyone and everything whether we are aware of it or not. Do you need to have an out of body experience to know that? Not at all! In fact most people are not as stubborn or contracted as I was. I needed a big lesson to remember love before I was able to experience love and offer love in ways I had not before. And still love - in human terms - can be confusing. We all have a memory of spiritual love and sometimes we expect our loved ones to be a substitute for it.

When you connect to spiritual qualities they are available to you. You can tap into universal love for sustenance and well-being from the inside out. And when you identify and acknowledge your spiritual qualities a weight is lifted from your human life. The inner quality of love does not take away from the tangle and tango we do with each other in our friendships, with our colleagues and in our intimate relationships. But it can sure relieve the pressure, and the expectations we place upon one another.

Knowing that the energy of life is love, that you are made of love, and that there is never a moment when you are not loved can bring great relief during times of doubt, fear and contraction. And then what is next?

Get on with your life. Live the adventure of your life fully! Create the experiences you want to have. Enjoy the twists and turns and possibilities in all of your human endeavors. Feel your feelings and keep navigating your course with love and for love. Love will never steer you wrong. It will give you a home inside yourself and it will guide you toward more love.

The Connection Option: Love
Love is the essence of all that is. The energy of life is innately loving and wise. I am either aware of the energy of love that is at the core of all of life including my own core, or I have forgotten love and am entrenched with fear, and doubt.

As a Victim
We look outside of ourselves to find love. We settle for substitutes that do not fill us up. We hunger for love but we do not know where to look or what it would look like when we find it. We are confused about love, we resist it and we ache for it while believing we cannot find it.

As a Creator
We know love is kind, accepting, and tender. We know love is consistent and pure. We know that we are connected to a steady stream of love and we let love move into and through us. We offer love to ourselves, and to the world around us because love is what we are.

Action for Love
Today I choose to remember love. I choose to see with the eyes of love. I allow myself to love and be loved.