Love ALWAYS. What does this mean? We are Love. There is no escaping it. Love is our mind, our soul, our body. We were born of Love, a Cosmic Energy of Creativity. The play of Life Upon Itself. 

Ernest Holmes wrote, “Love is the self-givingness of the Spirit through the desire of Life to express Itself in terms of creation.” We are that creation and we create from that place. 

Emerson tells us that “Love is a synonym for God.” The triune nature of us is love: Body, Soul and Spirit. Ernest Holmes once wrote and it is my favorite quote of his, “Love is a Cosmic Force whose sweep in irresistible.” There is Power in these words, in this knowing. If Love is a Cosmic force whose sweep is irresistible, then it would make sense that loving always would be a good idea for our lives. Why would we not acknowledge and use this Cosmic Force?  It is not something we have to create; we just need to reveal it, acknowledge it, allow it to flow through us. That’s how we use it.

However, it is easy to say this and another matter to experience it. What has to clear out of the way in order for us to love always, to reveal ourselves as Love? I call them the cover ups: judgement, resentment, anger, fear, unforgiveness, criticism and many more negative emotions that cloud our vision about our true selves. 

We sometimes say it is hard to let go of negative emotions such as the ones mentioned. They feel natural to us. However, like previously stated, they are just coverups for our true selves. If I had to boil them down to one emotion, I would say it is fear. Fear is the opposite of Love. Fear of what? This is an individual answer. I’m not sure if the answer really matters as much as the willingness to let go, to surrender to something greater than this lower emotion. We can go digging into our past to find out the why, but the place to heal is in the present moment.

There are ways to let go and connect to our higher selves through meditating, using Spiritual Mind Treatment, or Heart Brain Coherence and many other methods that we can find everywhere. No matter what method we choose, I know is that loving always has to start with me, with you, with the self. We hold the key to loving always. 

It’s so easy to say “just love yourself,” but to many of us, not only do we not know what this means, we do not know how to do it. This is my path to loving myself. I trust and believe in the force of the Law of Cause and Effect. I trust that when my thoughts go out, they come back to me as experience. I know that when I state something with feeling and the knowing that it is already done that there is nothing that can stop this force. So, if I want to change my thoughts about myself, all I have do is be willing and begin. 

I can begin right where I am, slowly, patiently, easily, gently. I can begin to talk to myself in a better way. I can praise myself for just being willing to make this change. I can praise myself for all I’ve been through and how I have navigated my life the best that I know how. I can start to compliment myself more. The Universe will answer with more experiences that prove that I am on the right path back to myself. People will show up that reflect myself to me and more.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been through a lot in my life. I haven’t always made the what seems now like the best decisions, but I made the best decisions at that time with the knowledge I had. Why would I keep berating myself? Apparently, humans are the only species that are mean to themselves. We are also the only species that has the ability to choose. This is our gift. 

We have the power to choose and an impersonal Force, a Blind force says yes to us and reacts to our choices by creating experiences based on those choices. So, if we choose to say “I’m a terrible person,” the Universe will give us experiences and people that will prove our point. If we begin to feel that we are worthy, the same will occur. It is done unto us as we believe. 

So, hopefully we can see that the only place to start is with ourselves. If we want to create something for our lives, we must become the thing we wish to create. If we think we are a terrible person and that thought is making us feel miserable, why not try the opposite? Why not focus on what we want to be. If it doesn’t feel good to think we are a terrible person, why would we keep on bringing it up and beating ourselves up about it? What’s so terrible about us anyway? How could a Consciousness that was born from Love be terrible? How could “a Divine idea in the Mind of God” be unworthy. It’s illogical.

However, we’ve been told a lot of things in our life that are illogical.  I once thought I was bad, and I haven’t been able to figure out why I felt that way. It wasn’t until I admitted that I truly felt that way and decided that it wasn’t logical to believe that about myself, that my thoughts about myself began to change. I began to instead learn about myself through meditating, classes, positive mentors, doing the things I loved and felt passionate about. I experienced what it feels like to touch people’s lives and make them smile just by being me. I began to be happy, fulfilled, and appreciative of myself by letting go of this crazy notion I had of myself and then practicing self-love.

Loving always is a choice. Love is our natural state of being. Love is not a valentine or our romantic relationships. Those are signs of Love. Love is our true energy, our creative energy. Love is what drives us. We are all moving in the vibration of Love always. What we call “evil” is just the cover up for Love. Love is still there. It is like Michelangelo talking about his David and how it was there and he just had to chip away the marble that covered him. Love is our David and we just have to chip away anything that covers it up and keeps it locked away. 

Today, let us do these things to express our love:

• Let us speak kindly to ourselves
• Let us take time to acknowledge our efforts
• Let us take time to say yes to the things that make us happy
• Let us give just a little more to others
• Let us truly listen to our intuition when it is nudging us in a direction that doesn’t necessarily make logical sense, but that resonates with our heart
• Let us release judgment of our past once and for all
• Let us practice being present in every experience
• Let us stop complaining about ourselves and others
• Let us seek to know God within more deeply
• Let us trust the Power of the Universe and know that it is always working in our favor

Can we take one of these at a time and slowly but surely make them part of ourselves. I believe that if we do, we will reveal the Love that we are, and it will flow into every part of our life – our finances, our health, our relationships and it will drive our creativity. 

I want to close this blog with some verse from a beautiful poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson called “Give All to Love.” It asks us to give everything over to Love.

Give all to love; 

Obey thy heart; 

Friends, kindred, days, 

Estate, good-fame, 

Plans, credit and the Muse,— 

Nothing refuse. 

‘Tis a brave master; 

Let it have scope: 

Follow it utterly, 

Hope beyond hope: 

High and more high 

It dives into noon, 

With wing unspent, 

Untold intent: 

But it is a god, 

Knows its own path 

And the outlets of the sky. 

It was never for the mean; 

It requireth courage stout. 

Souls above doubt, 

Valor unbending, 

It will reward,— 

They shall return 

More than they were, 

And ever ascending. 

Unconditional Love has no strings attached to it. It comes from the heart that knows that it needs nothing outside of itself and is only here to share that self with all that it comes in contact with.

May you experience the joy of unconditional love for yourself and others as your life.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren, Co-Spiritual Director CSL Kaua`i