Another Voice of Love

In the Whole Living magazine, October 2010 edition, an article caught my attention that has solidified the idea for me that love, while a wonderful feeling, is more a verb than it is an emotion. The article, The Love Experiment posed this simple question: "What if one question could change all your relationships?" Seems easy...simple, doesn't it? We are all looking for a magic bullet, something of a microwave solution that lies outside of us that will come into our lives (money, a person, the perfect job, someone changing their behavior, etc) so we can be happy, peaceful even.

The question was proposed by the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. If you do know of him, you will understand. If you do not then I would invite you to "meet" him. His thoughtful question? "Please tell me how I can love you better?"  The author of the article made a commitment to spend the next 30 days of her life living this question. It takes courage to ask this question. It takes a sure footed sense of ones self to expose our hearts to such a question. What the author found when she asked the question were surprising answers that were easy for her to respect and respond to.

"Please tell me how I can love you better?" also implies that I am making a commitment to be the best version of myself that I know I can be. That perhaps I will set aside my fears and my concerns and really listen to what you have to say. Discovery of what matters sometimes gives us permission to release the choke hold we have on life. If I can know how to love you better, I can know how to love myself better. We are told that love is kind, it is does not envy nor boast nor make a vain display; love does not rejoice in someone's failings, but rejoices who they are; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It never fails and is the greatest of all things. These ideas are ancient and yet have endured all the psychosis of mankind. Share your love today, in a different way. It just might change your life.