Because Shhhhmooooo Wants Love

I remember the first day, someone I was not in a relationship with told me that they loved me. That person quite unceremoniously, and openly said, "I love you, Dani." and you know what I thought? "What does he MEAN?" He "loves" me? Like, love love? I was taken aback, to be sure, as I knew (or thought I knew) this person was not IN LOVE with me, and yet nobody that was not my family, or my significant other had ever told me that. It felt so personal--and so private, and yet there it was before me like a cup to take and drink of--love.

I had no idea what love was. For at the time, I thought love was something you had to EARN, or do something to get, or be FORCED into feeling...or at least EXPRESSING....

Now I tell people I love them all the time. I tell my girlfriends, my work babies, my family and even some guys (shhhh! It's not THAT love!) And I don't wonder what I mean...and hope they don't wonder what I mean....but if they do.......

Love for me is an acknowledgement of the joy of in the actions, expressions and outreaching in others--or my "thank you" gesture for what others have offered to me. More than any other emotion, love to me is appreciation. I love food, but mostly appreciate that I can buy it. That someone prepared it. That someone had the DESIRE to create it. I can love my job, my family, my book, my music and even my dogs (even though they poo ANYWHERE (KENS), when they are left to do so) because of the linage of joy that traces to the beginning. THE BEGINNING. Someone started SOMETHING to get that from there, to here, for me!

Most know that in the Christian and Jewish faiths, the faithful follow to "serve the Lord your God in joy and gladness over the abundance of everything." (Deuteronomy 28:47) However, the Kabbalists explain that as a father, God seeks to help us grow with love and nurturing, marked by an abundance of goodness. Finding and honoring that goodness around us, honors God and all He has prepared in the world for us. And, this harkens back to one of my older posts that we indeed will always,

See what we see.

A lack of joy and happiness indicates that we don't see the good in which we are enveloped; indeed, that we are blind as many are, to our universe's love and caring.

The entire existence of the world is because of God's love. When we don't see that love, the relationship dissolves, appreciation and joy dissolves. We live in a world that asks us to be blind to God's love and kindness...to man's love and kindness. It really is very hard to see the good around us. The news we are inundated with is about tragedies and disasters, and entertainment is a vast abyss of fiction and lies we can never actually experience. It almost seems as if we prefer to live in a barren, empty, sad world than a bright, joyful one. Are many of us addicted to marinating in fault-finding? Do pointing out the fallacies of others help us mask our own self-loathings or disappointments? So surly so.

So yes, people miss love. They miss it, when they forget to acknowledge the love of others...the faith, the trust, the respect, the care and the attention of others. They miss love when they stop putting themselves into the universe and begin putting the universe as a place for THEM. When something goes "wrong" or is "under-par" do they complain--do they swear, or judge or allow themselves to feel spoiled or ruined because of it? Or, do they imagine what must have gone wrong for that something to be "not quite right" and wonder about the person who fell short in that moment (maybe that guy who just cut me off is distracted because his wife just told him she is leaving him)....I know it's a stretch, but it's possible! I once got pulled over for crossing the double-yellow line. I was distraced by the lump in my breast...it was innocent enough. Did I deserve a bit of sympathy, or just a ticket for being a lousy driver?

Sure, people do many things because it is their JOB to do so... and they should do it well, but who sets the standard for their "best"? Where and when did that begin? And when did someone else's job become OUR earned right? Such as,

"I am paying for this....it better be GOOD!"

Are you THAT worthy? Are you the king of your possessions? Truly, are you? So many think so. But, acknowledging the beginnings of your possessions--where did the money come from, who payed your wages, what earned you that position, who payed for your education, who gave you the idea or the motivation or the sense of "right and wrong" for you to WANT to earn it.....you begin to understand JUST how inter-connected we all are! We can truly take today, and all its blessings and look infinitely at the lives of all those who made today what it is....back generations and generations RIGHT TO our beginning--our first days---and be thankful THAT FAR, for THAT is where it really came from! We are not the sole heir of all we posess...as it has come from places far out-reaching our own grasp!

So, that is the place we should assign our responsibility to one-another. Caring for things that came from a place before us, we need too care for one-another as if it will carry far beyond us (because it WILL) and no matter what is done (forgotten, under-celebrated, hurtful, irresponsible) to us, we must TRY to honor SOMETHING of the process/product, for the spirit of what love is. We cannot receive it, if we have not first gotten it--we cannot give it, if we have not found it--

APPRECIATION.

You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Do you know what love is?

For me, only, love is seeing the eye of God--the hand of God--the heart of God--the will of God--the Hope of God-- and the WORK of God in every soul and in every thing. He is there--he is HERE, and so we can and should find and acknowledge that. Not only that, though, my love--the love I can off to THINGS, or PEOPLE, or CAUSES, or TIME is not any more mine than the money I have or the possessions I have. My love, too, is God's, for that is where it is from. So, when I decide how I will love (whom, and how I will express it, or take care of it, or keep it or even throw it away) I need to stay mindful that it is a GODLY LOVE. As is my house and all I possess Godly possessions. "The world is mine, and all that is in it (Psalm 50:12)." Not believing in God makes it harder to honor these things....but they are yet there to be respected regardless. Even without God, we can see how everything we have, existed because of the will and desire and heart of SOMEONE else, and we have a call to HONOR to respect and care for it. The book maker...the couch maker...would they joy in the hours of their labors if they were to see what you have made of their goods? And, then God (the LOVE maker). Would He have joy in the hours of his labors to see what you have made of your LOVE? These are the questions to ponder.

Sure JG, it can fade. But, it is because of US always. Someone cannot MAKE us change our love or make it fade. No more than someone can MAKE us love to begin with. It is our decision, always. You will see what you see. A dropped grain of sand in the middle of the ocean still exists, even when it passes through our finger-tips and is carried to shores miles and miles away....even when we cannot see it, find it, recognize it. It is there, under-foot, existing. God gives us all things, and they exist for us if even their need changes. If that sand is not meant to be brick for our foundation today, it can yet be something. Sure we cannot stand on it...build with it...but what about glass? Perhaps your lost sand can be glass...something clear, something new, something to see through to the world outside.

thanks for the thoughts! I love you!