FIRST PERSPECTIVE

The Power of Love

[Written Just Before Falling in Love with My Wife-to-be – in Anticipation]

  1        One must be strong to love.

  2        Love has to be reserved, not given too effusively; otherwise it will be misunderstood, mistaken, even resented, if the other is not able to reciprocate.

  3        In the beginning stages of love, one must be assured that he is not so all loving, that he is incapable of hate or lust or resentment, and all other familiar self-needs and expressions.

  4        It is hard to love without feeling, because much is required — too much for many.

  5        To love fully is to be aware of loving.

  6        One must often overcome the mood, the inclination, the impulse, of the moment to feel or express love.

  7        A warm, sincere smile from others — how it can raise our spirits; what a lovely expression of love.

  8        If we loved fully we would have little left of ourselves for lust.

  9        Lust is hard and thrusting; love, soft and driving.

10        The last thing one must think is that love is weak or saccharine.

11        Love is a unifying force – or power to be more precise.

12        Human love is an affectionate bond of compassionate unity.

13        We must come to realize that when we are considerate, thoughtful; when we feel sympathy, compassion, empathy; when we are buoyed up with joyous energy — that is the flow of love happening to us.

14        Love has always to contend with the jabs and pokes of others: their sarcasm, arrogance,   indifference, remoteness, mood changes, and all the rest. This way of   love is no easy ride.

15        It is one thing to be all smiling, pleasant, and courteous toward our equals; that is easy — on the face of things, that is; but not so easy toward those whom we consider our unequals. That is quite another matter. Perhaps it would be the best thing to consider everyone, right down to the lowest, the meanest, our equals. But to take this crucial step, is to go beyond the normal human expression of love. Is this not what is needed, though?

16        We’re apprehensive of truly loving, of really giving of ourselves — yes! And so we continue to speak about it, write about it, sing about it. A cul-de-sac if ever there was one.

17        Love is a strengthening, a buoyancy.

18        Love teaches patience — does it ever!

19        Love’s body. — In loving the body of another is akin to love his-her soul. In the loving embrace of two bodies, both hearts, both souls, fuse into one being.

20        The loving attitude does not mean that one actually feels (or feigns) love for everybody at all times, but that one acts in a loving manner. This is known as good will.

21         The loving attitude is certainly an ego-refining process. You do give much of the positive in yourself.

22         What? If I am to love, I can no longer be party to gossip, to barbs, to jibes, toward others? Am I to be an austere, compassionate patron? Only to see the good in others? Will I not be an utter bore to others? Not for me, thank you. Love must be something more — much more!