What Is Love - Do We Really Know?

Written By Don Shetterly

Every day I see people making statements about love and how we should love one another.  This is the time of year where love is in the air.  Unfortunately, the more I hear about love, the more I wonder if anyone realizes what it means.

Love isn't something that goes around boasting about how much it exists or how it exists.  It doesn't grandstand or exclaim, "hey, look at me!"  For it does not have to do this since love can be seen, felt, and acknowledged for its existence.

Readily Seen

Love isn't something we have to convince others that we have.  If we have love within our hearts, it will be readily seen through our thoughts, actions, and words. It will just be evident without us banging our chests as if we are the most pronounced dealers in the world of love.

Love isn't about what others think of us or how much our ego enjoys to be noticed.  It requires that we be there for others in a pure, unselfish and unadulterated manner.  The behavior we see on display these days tends to be anything but this.

Transcends Everything

Love isn't about keeping score of what you've done for other people or how you've been successful.  It is not about the latest stories and trends and rants or raves of the day.  There is no need for it to connect with trending topics because love transcends everything.

Love is more than puffing up one's spiritual beliefs as it blinds them to the deeper truth in their own lives and worlds.   For love is something that operates at a higher moment than any man-made set of truths derived from beliefs, customs, and ideas passed from one generation to the next.

Sits Quietly

Love is not a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  Often, pure and true unadulterated love sits quietly in the background spreading to every corner of the room.  It needs to not draw attention because everyone in the room will know if it is there or not.

Love comes from deep within the heart of our mind and body, not the ego that we see at every turn today in our world.  It is felt within the body, not dictated by the mind.  When you're thinking about what you should do or how you should react, love is not necessarily the one in control.

Support

Love comes from surrendering to feelings and emotions of all types, not just the select few we wish to engage.  It is about bringing balance to the extremes, but recognizing that the extremes in life exist.

Love is full of compassion and help, assistance and support.  It knows and sees a bigger picture because it is connected at the core of all that it exists.  Since it is connected, there is a knowing and understanding that rises above the common discourse of the day.

In The Knowing

If you ask, what is love?  Go deep into your heart to search for the answers.  They will not be in what others proclaim or how other people say love will show up.  Love will be in the knowing and understanding that there is more which transcends this current moment.

We will see love through the thoughts, words, and actions of those that it inhabits.  It will just be there automatically without effort.

Connection

It will connect with others in a way that they know it exists.  Nothing will need to be said to see it, for it is a felt emotion that is strong and powerful and never-ending.

Love is more than enough.

Love is in great enough supply.

We need to tap into it and discard the darkness in our hearts so that we not only feel it, but we share it with everyone.

The world needs love.

The world needs love in a big way.

May we all find and embrace the love that flows to every person in this world.

Let us all be open to pure love without trying to mold it into what we think it should be.

Also, read the blog post, I Send Out Love.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2/13/18 by Don Shetterly

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Healing The Itchy Hand Rash, Day 10

Healing The Itchy
Hand Rash, Day 10

For background on this post, please begin at the blog post on November 6, 2011 (Healing The Itchy Hand Rash, Intro).


From My Personal Journal on October 20, 2011

Another Night Of Torture


Last night was torture again as I tried to fall asleep.  Instead of muscle tension as in the night before, it was major heartburn and nausea.  I doubt it was anything I ate although that makes no sense.  Once I got to sleep, I slept pretty well the rest of the night.


I can see a marked improvement in the rash today.  The swelling of my hand has lessened, the itch and burning is not as bad.  The redness and blotches or pimples are still there to some degree.  However, seeing an improvement for the first time in over a week is reassuring.  It is difficult to experience this and it takes great amounts of strength and courage to make it through a day.

Healing The Itchy Hand Rash, Day 9

Healing The Itchy Hand
Rash, Day 9

For background on this post, please begin at the blog post on November 6, 2011 (Healing The Itchy Hand Rash, Intro).


From My Personal Journal on October 19, 2011

Difficult Night


Difficult night last night trying to get to sleep.  It is very hard finding a position to sleep in.  On top of that, as I laid down and attempted to sleep, the tension in my neck, shoulders and back turned into intense pain.  It became extremely challenging for me to relax and fall asleep.

At some point in the middle of the night, I saw an extremely bright light and heard some strange noise I had never heard before.  I sat straight up in bed from being startled.

Healing The Itchy Hand Rash, Day 6

Healing The Itchy
Rash, Day 6

For background on this post, please begin at the blog post on November 6, 2011 (Healing The Itchy Hand Rash, Intro).

From My Personal Journal on October 15, 2011

Scared And Frightened


Today is a difficult.  I look at my hand as disfigured and discolored as it appears striking horror in my eyes.  Liquid seeps from the raised blotches on my hand as if my hand has encountered water.  My hand is swollen to what looks like twice my normal size. 


I fear it will always be this way.  It hurts to move it, flex it or use it.  Sleeping becomes a difficult exercise as there is no good way to position my hand.  Every movement brings with it intense pain and itching.


I'm scared and frightened wondering what the outcome of this will be.  It wasn't that long ago that I experienced these horrible moments.  What lies ahead waiting to ambush me as a nightmare?

I Send Out Love

I Send Out Love

I Send Out Love

(c) Don Shetterly 10/21/11

I send out love to the frustrating parts of my life that I experience, including the periods of anger, moments of hopelessness and despair.

I send out love to the energy that I need, the love and acceptance I desire so that it engulfs my life.  Take away the fog and replace it with the love of knowing and understanding.

I send out love to all those who struggle and identify with the words I write.  It would be easy to tell those in despair that all will be okay.  Unfortunately, despair is not often able to hear and so I send out love to each person.

Prayer: I Send Out Love

I send out love to those that upset me with their constant criticism of everything in this world.

I send out love to those who speak only to hear themselves make conversation and sounds.

I sent out love to those who only are able to see part of the big picture but in their mind, they see it all.

I send out love to those who feel that what they have to say is far more important than what someone else is saying.

I send out love to those who are lost in teachings that they regurgitate upon request.

I send out love to those who fear and cast out others who are different than themselves.

I send out love to those who follow blindly what is expected of them.

I send out love to those who choose to just exist in life while ignoring their true potential.

I send out love to those who feel they can control or manipulate others, regardless if it is an adult, a child or an animal.

I send out love to those who attack others for personal gain.

I send out love to those who have experienced deep pain in their lives.

I send out love to those who do not understand what it means to be loved or that it is possible to be loved.

I send out love to mother earth for being raped and abused by the inhabitants.

I send out love to all who have experienced the horrors or evils of life, at the hands of others.

I send out love to those who have been harmed by war as well as those who have inflicted war upon others.

I send out love to those whose only motivation in life is control, power and money.

I send out love to those who are weighed under by circumstances that seem to be holding them back and weighing them down.

I send out love to my own body, spirit and mind so that I am able to be there for others with purity, humbleness and strength.

I send out love to the hearts of all people who see more of the differences in others rather than the similarities.

I send out love to the world in hopes that through my actions, others will pass love along.

I send out love to all that is created each day knowing that hope and possibility exist in each of our moments.

As I think about sending out love, may I truly and fully love and accept myself. May I realize that love begins with what I hold in my heart. For if I don't fully understand how to love myself, it will be difficult to love all that is around me. Let love being with me.


(Above Picture taken in my backyard, FL - (c) 09/18/10)

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