Voice of Spirit

" When the heart overflows, it comes out through the mouth." - Ethiopia

The words," I love you," have long held enormous power. What do the words actually mean today? What motivates us to express them? In Diane Ackerman's book, The Natural History of Love, she examines ideas about love from Plato's "perfect union" to attachment theory. Plato believed that people in a relationship are two incomplete halves, while attachment theorists believe that love is an escape from self into unhealthy attachments to others. Many theorists are concerned about the results of the loss of the person who is attached as the reason for emotional disturbance and self-destructive behavior.
Marianne Williamson writes in Enchanted Love, "You will not be lonely today because my love is here for you. I see you in the arms of God, and know that we are there together." Whether we think we are completing ourselves in union with another or forming an attachment or clinging to another, we are seeking the power of a loving relationship. But we are not powerless in this world, and our relationship with Spirit is complete and eternal. Other relationships are temporary reassurances that we are not alone in this world, but our spiritual bond is infinite.
When we love, we are living from our soul, and expressing the Spirit within us. Unexpressed love leaves us feeling stuck, because the Spirit within us, the love that we came to this life to be, must flow from us.
Keeping love to ourselves is like attempting to stop the flow of a waterfall with a spoon! Love is a powerful flow of energy that we can use to power our compassion, authenticity, and presence. Many of us say that we must acknowledge the Spirit within us and let God into our lives, but as Paul Gonyea of the Spiritual Living Center once said, "we must let God out." When we are filled with Spirit, we express our love freely.
Some of us may feel reluctant to express love too often or too quickly in our relationships, because of fear of rejection, or concerns about not receiving an expression of love in return. Some of us on the other hand may be reluctant to hold their expressions of love, because they believe it is expected of them. How many of us say "I love you," when we don't really mean it? How often do we regret having said "I love you" to another in an intimate encounter, too soon? Spirit is love unconditionally expressing itself through us, without respect to timing or strategy. Love simply is. When we make our loving relationships instrumental or part of a bargain, we construct shadows and uncertainties around the energy of the soul that Love is. Each moment of our lives is an opportunity to love. How will you let Spirit out today?