On this day of sweetheart celebrations, nestled ardently within the wintry Month of Love, let us revel in the radiance of rapture’s raw resplendence — let us celebrate the lofty limbs of love!
“I love you and that’s the beginning and end of everything.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald
“If I Didn’t Have You” Thompson Square
“That Love is all there is, is all we know of Love.”
— Emily Dickinson
Not A Relationship
Love is not a relationship. Love can and does exist whether or not a relationship is established based on it. Relationships can and do exist with and without the presence of love. Emotions and actions are not love. They are elements of relationships. They can reflect love, but they are not love. They often represent the type of relationship we are sharing with another. They are generated by the mind, and often confused with what love is. Love is a naturally occurring spiritual thing, and cannot be created or destroyed by what we think, feel, say, or do, although relationships certainly can be. If we focus on developing love consciousness then everything in our lives, including our relationships, will benefit from it. Doing so may also lead to the ending of superficial, unfulfilling relationships, and free us up for something more.
“Love is a friendship set to music.”
— Joseph Campbell
“Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star.”
– E.E Cummings
“Beautiful With You” Halestorm
“Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.”
– Elbert Hubbard
“Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.”
– Thomas de Quincey
Love’s Broader Lens
Before plunging any deeper into the steamy reaches of romantic love, let’s take a quick look through love’s broader lense. In addition to the mesmerizing melodies of couple love, there are many other kinds of love to be experienced with/for friends, family, humanity, animals, plants, the earth and her elements, spiritual things, and universal consciousness. Love is the sculptress of our human personality. By giving and receiving it we become who we are.
Love often involves selflessness and sacrifice, and finds joy and fulfillment through the reaches of its benevolent devotion.
Some have a passion for animals, and spend their lives caring for them. For example, some friends of mine have been rescuing and rehabilitating abandoned and abused horses for the past 18 years, at a great personal sacrifice. They love these horses with their everything — no matter what the cost to them. It is a lifetime commitment. And then the horses give their love right back. So here’s a special kind of love story for you on this day of love’s celebration …
In a quiet, beautiful valley in North Carolina there is a very special, healing place where you can hear the birds sing, feel the gentle breeze rustle through the trees and the munching of horses eating grass — a sanctuary for horses and people. All these horses had once been abandoned, abused, starved, and neglected. They had experienced terrible trauma, but once at the Sanctuary they have been shown kindness and love. Over time they forgave we “Humans”, making a promise to heal the broken hearts who entered their sanctuary. They have learned to love again.
Hidden Valley Equine Sanctuary and Therapy Center.
Plants sacrifice their lives to help us rise to higher consciousness. They bring us the love, the nourishing power of the sun, which is the same energy contained within all the stars, of all light. These cosmic energies emanated by plants thus nourish, sustain and encourage the growth of our own astral body. In this way the existence of plants is a great offering, a sacrifice. They offer us not only their own nutritive value but the very light and love from the stars, from the cosmos whose messengers they are.
Let us, through our indefatigable pursuit of higher consciousness, honor the loving sacrifices of those living things that lend their lives to lift us.
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
– Lao Tzu
“I think perhaps I will always hold a candle for you – even until it burns my hand. And when the light has long since gone. I will be there in the darkness holding what remains, quite simply because I cannot let go.”
– Ranata Suzuki
“You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.”
— Barbara De Angelis
“Got You On My Mind” NF
“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”
— Aristotle
“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”
— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Romantic Love
We sometimes think we don’t have those special feelings for someone because we feel many different things for them simultaneously. In this objectified world, physical attraction, or a rush of emotions combined with our instinctual drive to procreate, is often viewed as the singularly most important, and sometimes sole measure of whether or not we are romantically attracted to someone. Even if we are highly sexual, this animal magnetism has little to do with our real interest in and ability to love someone. If we want someone because they are crazy sexy or insanely gorgeous, or because there is something about them that gets under our skin; then there may not be much left that we like about them after the dazzling pyrotechnics erupt and fade away. Such attraction alone is highly superficial, and fails to provide a basis for a sustainable love relationship. These connections may quickly burst into flame, and in their ashes it is often realized that nothing else was ever there. If we want real love, then we need to find something more than compelling chemistry or good sex. Real romantic love often grows out of the Balanced love of best friend relationships.
Imagine a richly hemp-scented rustic woven basket, with sumptuous pensile luminaries adorning its periphery, filled with an abundance of sweet and thoughtful gifts. Inside the basket we find a hard cover edition of the Mahabharata, a container filled with homemade pumpkin curry soup, a moldavite pendant, peppermint essential oil, dark chocolate truffles, nutritional supplements, keys to a house and car, a T-shirt, a CD containing a workout playlist, poetry written just for us, and a bottle of our favorite champagne in a black box.
Now imagine a gift consisting of a bottle of cheap champagne playfully wrapped in a lacy black thong tied on with a ruffly red garter.
When thinking about the gift basket, how much of a feeling of compelling interest, or excitement did we have about the champagne alone (even though it is our favorite)? We noticed it, but we were also noticing and appreciating the other things in the basket, the sentiments behind them, and how complete or well-rounded the contents were.
With the G-string bubbly, there was nothing else to focus on, so we drank it down while visualizing its sexy giver wearing the thong and dancing exotically during tomorrow night’s hot date.
When there are many things we like about something (or someone), we are less likely to focus solely on any one thing — even if it is something that alone would be highly compelling or even spellbinding (like our favorite champagne, or our physical attraction to someone we love). So we might pay less attention to the champagne in the gift basket than the champagne alone — even though we like the champagne in the gift basket much better. Make sense?
Real romantic love is more than steamy sweet emotion and sexy chemistry — more than the same old thong and dance — it is our awareness of a synchronizing spiritual connection existing as a single soul in two bodies.
“Trust your intuition and be guided by love.”
— Charles Eisenstein
“Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.”
— Karl Menninger
“The minute I heard my first love story – I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere – they’re in each other all along.”
— Rumi
“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”
— Rumi
“In Case You didn’t Know” Brett Young
“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. That’s what I hope to give you forever.”
— Noah from The Notebook
“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold.”
— Zelda Fitzgerald
“Love is my religion — I could die for that — I could die for you. My creed is love and you are its only tenet.”
— John Keats
“I want to do things so wild with you that I don’t know how to say them.”
— Anais Nin
Sexy Love
Drinking in the orgasmic bliss, clitacasmic ecstasy, and mesmerizing rapture of your pussy cat predilections or concupiscent cocktail is made deliriously more exhilarating when whipped up from a dance of higher love. Swaying, rocking, bumping, grinding; from the silhouettes at sunset to eurhythmic radiance in the fulgence of the dawn. Pleasure-enhancing substances cannot approach the star-powered proclivities of two lovers one in heart and soul and mind. When sharing an In Lak’ech connection, the infinite vivacity of the cosmos brings both melody and harmony into love. When material world mating is an external manifestation of the true nature of our spirit; when sensuality is the physical portrayal of the alignment of spirit, heart, body, and mind; when our rhapsodic rhythms extend the cosmic dance; our fire and zest burst into dreams beyond romance. When two people individually attain this alignment, and then share deliciously in love’s desire and fun; their sparks become the great galactic sun.
Like most nutrients, medicines, and cosmetics; sex comes in junk food and gourmet versions. The benefits of refined, sensual epicurean expressions greatly exceed those of the casual tongue and cheek varieties. For sex to nourish, heal, and embellish, we must become spiritually, emotionally, and physically vulnerable; which usually takes place within the safety, familiarity, and trust created by a long term, loving relationship (like a marriage). Best selling author, couples therapist, and clinical psychologist Sue Johnson says that “sex without love is like dancing without music.”
Emerging trends reveal that everyone could benefit from having more gourmet sex. Sex is an energy source that boosts our physical vitality, emotional stability, mental clarity, and spiritual well-being. Like superfoods, yoga, and meditation; sensuality is a primary element in a healthy, happy lifestyle. Regular love making keeps the body in better balance. That euphoric ascension to orgasm pumps dopamine, our body’s natural heroin-high, into our neural pathways, producing motivation, stamina, and personal power. When we erupt into the dreamy delectation of orgasm, its pulsating pleasure pumps us full of oxytocin, increasing social effectiveness and decreasing cortisol levels (cortisol causes stress). Higher pheromone levels are sexy souvenirs from sweet coition. And ladies, hold tight to your lipstick, because semen has now been proven to be a mood elevator. So go ahead, let your hair down, and plant a sweeter, broader smile across your love.
For those of you riveted to random pussy cats or joy sticks, bulging breasts or biceps, or the passing rush of back door booty calls; why not ditch the take out and become a bon vivant of salubrious, sultry sex. Try blinder sex, to savor that sparkly chemistry with your honey that makes you fantasize about them in the shower, call in sick so you can spend all day making love and eating truffles, and caress their steamy assets when passing by. If your relationship lacks connection, try these couples yoga poses to draw your bodies closer. Want to improve sex naturally? Here are some herbal enhancements to rev up your rhythms. Do you or your beloved crave heady foreplay, but feel uncertain, shy, or anxious when going down? Learn the art of mindful oral sex to please your partner, or be tantalized today. Recent research suggests that the one thing women need for better sex is more sleep. For men, the key is more exercise.
The health benefits of sexual healing arise out of intimacy shared by adults in committed relationships. They have not been associated with the casual tongue and cheek connections; and are not relevant for children and adolescents. Please understand that my intention is to highlight the science-based healing benefits of sexual intimacy within the sweet sacredness of adult committed relationships, where I believe love should have no limits. When blossoming out of love, sex will improve our physical, mental, and spiritual health. It’s all about love. Love is everything.
“Where there is love there is life.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“The first symptom of love in a young man is timidity; in a girl boldness.” — Victor Hugo
“I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
“Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.”” – Khalil Gibran
“Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame. – Henry David Thoreau
“Fall On Me” Andrea Bocelli & Matteo Bocelli
“I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.”
— Roy Croft
“Love is the magician that pulls man out of his own hat.”
— Ben Hecht
“To be your friend was all I ever wanted; to be your lover was all I ever dreamed.”
— Valerie Lombardo
“We are the leaves of one branch, the drops of one sea, the flowers of one garden.”
— Jean Baptiste Henry Lacordaire
“Loved you yesterday, love you still, always have, always will.”
— Elaine Davis
Me and Love
Of all the songs I wrote and recorded, this is my favorite: “Our Love Will Find A Way.” Fire Prince.
And here’s one of my recent poems:
Calla Lily Moonshine
November 29, 2018
Venus in a universe of fiery purple dragons,
Where soulmates wear each other like a crown,
With psychedelic rainbows dripping off the ruffled velvet skies,
Through the calla lily moonshine pouring down;
Trumpeting its frosted silver rays across forever,
For love and only love will always be,
Its goddess ruling sweetness, sensuality, and ardor,
As her calla lily moonshine floods the sea;
Stirring waves of bliss beneath her diamond-studded kisses,
Across the night in sultry silhouettes,
Of paramours enraptured by erotic rhythms rolling,
Under calla lily moonshine pirouettes;
Lipstick deep inside your muffled words of lusty laughter,
A rose that drizzles whiskey fire in bloom,
Where ecstasy becomes the breath of life for now and always,
When the calla lily moonshine fills the room;
Venus in a universe of fiery purple dragons,
Where soulmates wear each other like a crown,
With psychedelic rainbows dripping off the ruffled velvet skies,
Through the calla lily moonshine pouring down,
With psychedelic rainbows dripping off the ruffled velvet skies,
Through the calla lily moonshine pouring down,
Through the calla lily moonshine pouring down.
LOVE IS EVERYTHING
Photo credit: Schleifer_86
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