No Limit on Love

So often we take what we have for granted.  The great winter storms of the weekend, testing and destructive for many people, showed those affected and others who watched how much they love their homes, their land and their animals, while the Coronavirus fears have helped us to value our good health and our freedom to travel and mingle freely with other people. 

Even more seriously the death of Caroline Flack, famous presenter of Love Island, in the saddest of circumstances is another poignant reminder of the importance of love and kindness.  One of her last messages on social media was a request for people to be kind, for it seems little consideration was shown to her by strangers and acquaintances at a time of great need and vulnerability.  How cruel and ugly and unloving we can be.

There is a gulf of difference between the love which is the Christ Consciousness, the expression of God on Earth, and love as understood and demonstrated by many humans.  The former is unconditional, undemanding, honest and compassionate while love between people can be intolerant, possessive, unkind and self-centred, based on illusion, pretence and desire.  It happens between couples and also celebrities with the public:  so often, when the glamour of first love or admiration has waned and only the reality remains, the relationship is found to be unsatisfactory, the object of love is judged and sometimes punished for their imperfections.  It is sad and ironic that Caroline Flack, at a time when love is celebrated, may have felt her life was unsupportable because she was not loved.

With a mutual intent to have acceptance and non-judgment, trust and liberty, every couple has the potential to achieve a deeply fulfilling life together, and the celebration of Valentine’s Day can be an honouring both of each other and of the essence of love rather than a sometimes trivialised and commercialised token gesture.  Similarly, for each of us to have respect and regard for those who share our world is important, whether it be for people we know or strangers on social media, the anonymous workings of which can make us feel encouraged to mock and criticise in ways that are unworthy and destructive.  

It was no coincidence, meanwhile, and very cheering that, as I watched Storm Dennis deluge my garden over the Valentine weekend, the abundance of water called many frogs to emerge from their rocky refuges to find love in the ponds their own way.  For them, love is simple and natural, and never intended to hurt.  There is no limit on love.

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