Article by: Sharon Brooks

Love is written, talked about, in multitudinous ways. Taking center stage are God’s love and man’s love. Often depicted as being bestowed upon some, and held back from others. Requiring certain ceremonial acts, and/or having hidden conditions connected to that attainment. Even today’s dictionary defines love as a strong affection or liking for someone or something, a passionate affection for someone, etc. And it is within this ideal of love, we are so mistaken, as to what real love, really is.

Through lust and emptiness, one attempts to reinvent that which is so deep and unutterable. On the other hand from a full heart, the unutterable is not only expressed… but recognized. Where the presence of love is, it can be seen and felt as all encompassing, rather than self gratifying. Its bigger, deeper and wider than many of the usual ways of showing it, and have for too long been mistaken as tokens of it. Real love is beneficial in itself, and needs nothing else to be complete. From the vantage point of subjectivity, however, love has limits, strings attached, and gain.

Differentiating real love from self love, it becomes obvious as to which one is engaged simply by noticing who benefits from it, and how. To benefit is suppose to mean something good, but when it comes from the body’s desires and cravings, even the word good is suspect to scrutiny. In order to benefit and do good, the act has to be of a virtuous nature, which always includes others than just myself, and not only for the present, but long term too.

The mechanics of love are not easy to grasp when the mode of observation is small and transitory. Love depends on nothing, is a compilation of everything, and naturally gravitates outward… straight from the heart.

Article by: Sharon Brooks