A thought I had about love

Love invokes incredible fear because it comes with the realization that there is an inevitable pain attached. The pain comes from the understanding that the nature of love is unending & permanent, but the nature of all things on earth is impermanence.

It doesn’t matter if you feel love and the relationship never comes to be or if you love and have a long and happy life with someone because in the end you will still feel the pain that comes from such an opening. This teaches me that love requires incredible courage. There is no controlling it; there is no protection from it.

Is this the nature of God's love? To always want what is the truest happiness for the object of your love? To be open to the purest expression of love by having the courage to hold on by letting go? What authenticity he must possess that he would be willing to bear that elation and loss an infinite number of times with all that has been created?

And perhaps this is why we have created these long standing human institutions like marriage to give us the illusion of security and permanence so that we can allow ourselves to love more deeply. Perhaps too this is the reason for all cycles that give the illusion on permanence and something we can attach ourselves to.

If this is true than it teaches me this. That all of our institutions and celebrations are critically important. The measure of their success isn't whether or not you never get divorced, or never miss a Sunday at church. The measure is whether or not in them you challenge yourself to really love, to attach. Maybe you do, maybe you don't but did they give you the space to have courage and try? In doing so we begin to believe that we can really love ourselves and that is the most important truth and purpose of all.

I love you all.
Alisha