“You’ve got to give a little. Take a little. And let your poor heart break a little. That’s the story of, that’s the glory of love.”
LOVING IS A RISK AND A CHOICE. We all want love but we all want to escape the risk of it. Love. When you open your heart you are in joy and vulnerable and at risk at the same time. When you open your heart something happens to you emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The experience of loving releases wonderful chemicals from your brain into your blood stream and your body awakens with feelings of well-being. You can even experience the spiritual event of bliss.
The experience of love is transformative. When you love you are changed and your entire perspective on all things change along with it. What was once a cynical or apathetic point of view can become compassion. Compassion can lead to proactive service to all life. It makes even the smallest act of compassion a joy. Why? Because we are all connected in some mysterious way with all life. In some way you are the snail crossing a wet roadway, a bird sitting on your window sill, the bicycler who hogs the road, the victim on evening news, the purple blossom you see on your walk. Did you ever stop to help that snail out of harm’s way, commune with the bird on your sill, forgive the bicycler, or find a way to comfort someone in need, or express gratitude to the flowers you see? Love is strange that way. It compels you to do things that may seem naive or silly to others.
Love is innocent. Love is defenseless. And that for many is the rub. Loving is scary. When you love you risk rejection and other imagined harms. Consider this however. When you love you make yourself vulnerable and strong at the same time. Any rejection you may experience can be an opening door to realizing your own beauty. The pain of the rejection can move you to deeper thought about who you are and in that journey you cannot help but discover that in loving your are loved.