Love as Demonstration

A recent meditation from Richard Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation catapulted me backward in time to a long-ago conversation with my spiritual mentor. I remember it because it shook me at a very profound level.

 “Ron, it’s not love if it is focused only on one person or one thing.

For it to be love, it must extend to everyone and everything.” 

After a stunned silence, my response began with obvious resistance.

“But what about …” 

Before I could get another word out, my mentor cut me off gently.

“Ron, there can be no buts where love is concerned.”

So began one of the more significant deep dives into myself, an exploration to understand the many ways and conditions that prevented me from fully understanding and expressing love. Not love as a noun, but an action in practice … loving.

Here’s the excerpt from the meditation I mentioned that was my springboard.

“Love is a non-possessive delight in the particularity of the other.”

~ Dr. James E. Loder 

Imagine that! Delight in the particular attributes of someone, or something, including ourselves. To which a commentator added:

“Non-possessive delight sounds like devotion to me.

Rather than trying to change, manipulate, or devour the object of our affection,

fierce love delights in the particularities of who [or what] they are.”

~Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis

Seeing True in Reality and In Practice™

Here is the proverbial crux: If all parts of the creation are equally wondrous, what is it that keeps us from experiencing and demonstrating unconditional delight to each being, thing or circumstance that the world brings forth into our lives?

More specifically:

What do we fear, or need to control?

Where is the perceived threat it represents?

How are our judgments impeding the ability to love?

“Everything belongs.” ~Richard Rohr 

Nothing is excludable.