It's All Just LOVE

Love. Its meaning and essence are interpreted as diversely as the languages that attempt to describe it. Love has been called everything from a battlefield and a burden, to the death of reason. It has been compared to a violin, a rose, a puppy, a grapefruit and a pair of old shoes. Science says that love is a chemical reaction. Psychology calls love an emotion. Philosophy defines it as a concept. In almost every case, love is classified into types such as romantic, brotherly, filial, familial, parental, erotic, unconditional, universal, and platonic, to list but a few. I propose a shift away from traditional views by asserting that love is neither an emotion nor a concept, but is an energy, an energy of the highest vibrational resonance known to man, one that has infinite expressions but only one type.

I may be radical in my thinking but when I feel love for someone, that love feels the same whether it is for my child, my neighbor, or myself. The love I feel is an energy originating in my heart, one that can’t be quantified or categorized. It just IS. How I express and share that love is where I find the variable. Toward my son, my love expresses most often as nurturing and support. With my partner, love expresses through emotional and sexual intimacy. With some, my love expresses almost entirely as compassion. For the Divine, it expresses as reverence, service and gratitude.

I know that I’m a bit of a dreamer, but I believe life would be much more authentically lived if we never placed labels on this most fundamental aspect of human existence. As I see it, the problem with sorting love into types is that one type naturally comes to be viewed as better, more, greater, or stronger than another. For instance, neighborly love is generally not held as highly as parental love, and universal love is often ranked above all other kinds. I do not believe love can be typified. Trying to do so is like trying to label, rank, and sort people into races, something that hasn’t worked out too well for anyone .

Society and culture largely dictate how we express love by determining what is acceptable, appropriate, safe and even legal. I don't deny the need for guidelines, but no one needs to be told that one kind of love is stronger or better than another. All love is good love. All love is strong love. All love is pure, whole, unconditional, infinite and sacred energy, regardless of whom or what we share it with.