The following is an excerpt from a book by Catherine Thomas entitled Light in the Wilderness:
What the world generally refers to as love is an intense emotional condition, combining physical attraction, possessiveness, control, addiction, eroticism, and novelty. It’s usually fragile and fluctuating, waxing and waning with varying conditions. When frustrated, this emotion often reveals an underlying anger and dependency that it had masked. That love can turn to hate is a common perception, but here, an addictive sentimentality is likely what’s being spoken about, rather than Love; there probably never was actual love in such a relationship, for hate stems from pride, not love.
Pure love is unconditional, unchanging and permanent. It doesn’t fluctuate—its source isn’t dependent on external factors. Loving is a state of being. It’s a forgiving, nurturing, and supportive way of relating to the world. Love isn’t intellectual and doesn’t proceed from the mind: love emanates from the heart. It has a capacity to lift others and accomplish great feats because of its purity of motive.
Love, then, has an irrational quality to it; that is, it is not based necessarily on reasons to love another person, but is rather a choice as to how we are going to encounter the world around us. It is an attitude that we are going to establish, a “state of being” that is independent of what others choose to do.
Every person in Zion will have to come to understand that Zion can only survive if love and at-one-ment are the established dynamic in each heart.
It’s then possible to “one with another,” for there are no longer any barriers. Love is therefore inclusive and expands the sense of self progressively. Love focuses on the goodness of life in all of its expressions and augments that which is positive—it dissolves negativity by recontextualizing it, rather than by attacking it. As love becomes more and more unconditional, it begins to be experienced as inner joy. This isn’t the sudden joy of a pleasurable turn of events; it’s a constant accompaniment to all activities. Joy arises from within each moment of existence, rather than from any other source.
Here’s some more Catherine if you liked the above.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
YES. And being me, I'm going to illustrate your point with a conversation I had with a very troubled 7th grader having a very bad week...
ReplyDeleteHim: Ms. So-and-so just acts nice. But she isn't really like that. It's just her job.
Me: Actually, Ms. So-and-so really is that nice! She's a great person, and she's not pretending, that's how she is all the time.
Him: Nu-uh. Teachers don't really care. They just act like they do. They're just here to make money.
Me: Are you kidding? If we were looking for money, we'd be doing something else! I could do lots of jobs that would make me better money than teaching. We're here because we really, honestly care about you guys.
Him: But why?? Why do you care so much??
Me: Um.... We just do. Can't really help it.
Him: That's dumb. You shouldn't care about us.
Me: Can't help it. It's not going to change.
I felt like I should be able to come up with some better reasons... but I think Catherine knows what she's talking about. Love is rather irrational. I don't care more or less based on whether someone "deserves" it. It just is what it is.
M Catherine is an amazing woman. "The spirit of at one ment" was a defining read for me.
ReplyDeletesometimes its easy to forget that it wont make sense sometimes, or its not all that other stuff you listed at the top. its unconditional, and its something like "true anxious concern for another" (gordon b hinkley), and its hard to describe. but its love.
ReplyDeletethanks jon :)
I love this post. It describes the type of love I am trying to possess. Thank you.
ReplyDelete35 followers, Jonny. There's a reason. You possess this definition of love. And a mean texting thumb.
ReplyDelete