If Love is a risk, then why do it? What are you willing to risk for love?
Love isn’t something we can control, organise, keep in a pretty box, a spreadsheet or an iphone. It isn’t anything we can rationally understand. Unconditional love will require us to let-go, over and over. Love also contributes to our sense of security but essentially love is a risk.
Love flies is the face of our egoic structures that attempt to keep us safe and protected. It is a ’freefall’. Once you let go into it, then it’s a wild ride. It takes courage, persistence and trust. Trusting your own heart in the face of opinion, doubt, past beliefs and circumstances.
It is risky to Love fully and deeply and it needs to be grounded in self-love. We need to know our limits, and honour our vulnerability. Otherwise we are in danger of eventually contracting back into deeper protection.
When we risk love we are inviting our fears to surface
Treat these fears with respect and compassion, but don’t live by them. Don’t let fear rule our hearts. Let love rule. Let your deepest heart guide you. The wise person risks being a fool for love. If we stay contracted and fearful we will end up with separation and isolation. We may be more ‘comfortable’ but there will be that nagging ‘what if…?’
Love is a bushfire that can burn away what needs to be burnt away. It can also be a beautiful warm bath to sink into and relax. But we know deep down the plug can be pulled, leaving us sitting wet and cold in an empty bathtub wondering what the hell happened?
In spite of our best efforts at loyalty, commitment and authenticity, love has no guarantees. We live in an impermanent world. We love people, animals, things, ideas – all of which will eventually be swept away. In fact love may be the only permanent thing. It is the stuff of the universe. It’s also called consciousness.
The heart longs for love, risks for love, dies for love.
We can be aflame with love for another and it’s not reciprocated. Or have given our all and been used. Or we can be in long and beautiful marriages and one of the partners eventually dies. And even knowing this, the flame of love continues to burn. The heart longs for love, risks for love, dies for love. A warrior gives their life for love of family, country, freedom, ideals. The grandmother comes out of retirement to care for the children of her drug addicted daughter. A brother jumps into a raging river to save his sister from drowning. A health worker risks their life treating infectious patients.
We stretch ourselves to give birth to love. There are inevitable stretch marks, scars and the incredible beauty of the freefall, the birth, the rebirth, the dive into the heart of love. It’s an opening, a gap, a portal, a doorway. It’s not always wide open….. we may have to pull it creaking and resisting, or fling it open. Sometimes love is a flood, sometimes a slow trickle that fills the dam. When the dam walls burst we stand free and clear as lovers of life, lovers of awakening, of spirit, of freedom, of all that is.
What does risking love look like?
It could be committing to a beloved or renewing commitment. Equally it could be committing to your own truth and ending a wrong relationship. A fertile ground for love is being vulnerable to others – revealing yourself. Risking love for you may be joining a dating site saying ’I’m ready for love.’ For another it could be accepting a desire to conceive a child, or letting go of a child ready to fly the nest. Asking for help may wrench your heart out of its comfort zone. For the masculine it may be to deepen your mission and purpose, while making time and honouring your intimate life. Start doing what you love, or bring heart integrity to what you already do. Be a deeper man. Be a more alive woman. Act now or…. wait and receive.
Love is what sits right in your heart right now. Listen to that voice, that urge, that true desire.
There are no rules in the freefall to love. Risk, and love is its own reward. Yes you will suffer and yes you will be fulfilled. Your life takes on the deepest meaning you can imagine.
Practices to live love:
- Find a quiet place to sit and reflect on what your heart is saying to you – it does talk when we get quiet enough to listen. Trust what comes up, protect it, nurture it. Then act on it.
2. Take notice of your dreams and daydreams – they are powerful ways your intuition talks to you about what lies deeper in your heart.
3. Consult with your trusted friends and allies – they know when you are living your heart.
With love
