by Elena Ryder

Created on: November 11, 2008

"For one human being to love another human being," Rainer Maria Rilke said, "is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation."

But what is love exactly? Love is such a mysterious and powerful force, with deep dimensions, that it's endless descriptions are but dancing sparks upon the vast oceans. Love is a million grains of sand brushing against seamless shores, and the barefoot strolls that join them. Their purpose and pleasure is in merely existing, placed before us by an endless universal miracle that celebrates the union of things.

For many, it's a lifelong search that aims at "personalizing" affections, such as the love of a person, a profession, or an object of desire. For others, love is not a thing but a place within. It's a penetrating and expansive light that exposes truths, shares strength and vulnerability, and is akin to one's ultimate essence or the source of all things. God is love.

The descriptions are inexhaustible, but so are the examples, and it's through these experiences that the liberating and intimate knowledge of love are able to be understood.

Love is an active power that breaks through the walls which separate man from his fellow men. It's the giving of what is alive in us; our joy, interests, humor, sadness, and understanding. The giving of our selves. These expressions, or manifestations, enrich the lives of all involved and are a constant exchange between human will and divine providence.

To love is to experience the world with a sense of heart, and to extend that vision so fully that everyone we meet has a share of its igniting. It's to see the world with eyes of wonder and excitement, to offer our hands openly and unconditionally, to utter words which heal and inspire, and to journey gently with clear intentions and compassion. Love is knowing that all of us share a perpetual and evolving connection.

When we can love things for what they are, from a place that transcends thoughts and words, we are living our lives from love itself. A moment of that recognition is an embrace of the eternal truth and beautifully extends the freedom of its flow. Entrust this tenderness and carry it into worldly affairs, and watch every ray in the universe mingle with a dance of humble and delighted privilege to be alive with a sense of ease and timelessness.

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