Dea calls for us to extend compassion, forgiveness, and love towards they who have wronged us. She calls for us to extend loving compassion and mercy towards people who have offended us. She calls on us to emulate Her perfect, universal love to all people regardless of their stature in the community or their standing in our eyes. Because we are diminished and more distant from Her than we were in the beginning of all things, the weight of the world makes it harder for us to love the whole of creation.
There are places within and without us that cry out for that love and kindness. Our eyes are blinded by the veil of matter and all the confusion that comes with it. None of us see clearly through that veil, no matter how holy we may be or seem to be. All of our wisdom is but a drop of water in the sea of Reality. The simplest of laws binds all of us together and yet it is the hardest to adhere to in this life. Love unto all beings is our Lady's law. How, one may ask, do you love the very persons who have wounded you to your very soul?
Love can be unconditional while healthy boundaries are kept. One may love from afar. Transpersonal love can be unconditional. It is a more abstract sense of love than interpersonal love. But one can love in this fashion. Transpersonal love or the love of all people is difficult. Very few want to love all people. There are those who stand out from the rest of the crowd and appear to embody wickedness. I tell you, as surely as these people may elicit feelings of rage, disgust, or some other potentially hostile emotional response, you can transform it into love. It takes a great deal of patience and practice.
It requires us to examine what has provoked this response. Just as we fall in love with people who resemble traits in ourselves that we love, we come to hate people who have traits within them that resemble traits that we hate within ourselves. For this reason it is vital to know ourselves as best we may so that we might consciously and deliberately love each other, and ourselves.
Some mistakenly believe that the only truly valid form of love is romantic or familial. The love of one's pets is no less valid than the love of one's friends or the love of one's family. Popular culture is beginning to recognize this with the expression of 'pet parent'. With the rise of friendships with elements of 'classic' romance incorporated in them, these relationships are beginning to get recognition for how important and necessary it is to have loving relationships beyond the single romantic partner model. In addition to this, we are finding more open evidence of healthy self-love practices in the younger generations.
Our culture is in the midst of a quiet revolution being lead by the younger portion of generation x, generation y, and the millennial generation. They have been fighting for all forms of love to be recognized. In some cases, their struggle is in spite of death. And this is not a strictly 'first world' struggle. We can see these brave people challenging governmental and cultural practice all around the world. In many places they do so at great danger to themselves and their loved ones. The punishments for challenging theses heavily entrenched cultural beliefs about love range wildly.
The mildest is ostricization. There is the criminalization of things like the open expression of homosexuality, which can result in the leveling of fines, imprisonment, and in some parts of the world execution. Polyamory is illegal in most of the United States unless is done on the sly outside of the "sacred institution' of marriage. Even in that grey area where partners are not married, there is still social condemnation for all parties in that polyamorous relationship. The expectation that one person should meet all of the social and emotional needs of their partners is a toxic and unhealthful claim to how love operates.
Love is patient and kind, as the Christian saint wrote. Love is also respecting the limitations of oneself and others. Love is setting boundaries and protecting oneself from harmful people. Love is fighting for the oppressed people's well being. Love is the kindness that brings the terminally ailing to a good death. Love is the kindness that allows for the parting of partners in an unhappy relationship with respect and compassion for each other. Love is the strength to endure hardship for the sake of the greater good. Love is the willingness to put aside pride and choose to compromise instead of fighting over who is 'right'.
There are countless ways to love the world and it takes great courage to love the world.There are many who will scoff and name you a fool. Let their scorn be as the rattling of an empty can. For their scorn is born of ignorance. Perhaps, pity them for their narrow vision. But do not be troubled by it.
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