Flow Cannot Be Unrequited

     I grew up with no understanding of infinity or unconditionality or any eternal source of love. The teachings of my church-going did not include inclusion. Judgement would address the wrongness with which I had been born. I was instructed to struggle through my life to meet the requirements of the system, regularly admitting my unworthiness and inability to meet the requisite standard.
     I had no reason to think that the world is within, and that The Divine flows through me into the world. I was taught a world view based in trade and exchange; this for that; and retribution.
     Weekday life was not dominated by religious ideology. I navigated the world as it had been shown to me. Life was an economic system where supply was limited and scarcity was an absolute fact. Everything had a price and my job was to earn what I needed, and to prove that I was deserving of anything I might receive.
     At a weekend picnic I might swap my cheese sandwich for a friend’s egg sandwich. I would do so only when I had assurance that the trade would be completed equitably: the sandwich supply was limited. To give without receiving was to go without, and to be without was to expose my weakness and failure as an individual. This design of the world and my role in it was the only one I knew: I had no idea there was any other way to see.
     A half-century later, my world is much changed. Western society has changed. I have learnt from the events of my life, and I am part of the Global Shift that is underway.
     Since August 2013 I have been realigning myself and recognizing that love is the source of all things and the container in which we live. As I examine the many loves which are named in the language of Ancient Greece, I have found logic in human expressions of love.
     When we arrive in the physical world we are helpless and totally dependent on others for food and a roof and the very survival of our physical selves. We need, and we love those who meet our needs. This familial love is Storge, and it is felt by both adult and child. Storge loops back and forth in a thoroughly necessary feedback for the survival of the young, and for the willingness of the adult to continue to give. Parent and child benefit from an ongoing cycle of give and take, return and receive.
     In Eros love between adult couples, mutuality is a necessary component. Attempts to impose “unrequited” Eros are toxic and spiritually violent; healthy Eros is sharing, and reflections of respect for one another. When expressing the fullest nature of Eros, humans need to feel loved in order to return love.
     Since becoming a widow in 2007 I have moved into a life that is filled with Storge and other loves. Since my 2013 download of Agape love, I have shifted into a new flow of love.

 


     Most recently I have been granted the insight that when Agape flows through the human field into the world, requitedness is totally unnecessary.
     When I am the channel through which love flows, I am like a faucet through which water flows. There is no thought of return. When any obstacle impedes the flow, it will be worn away by the stream. The Flow will dislodge all incompatible -- unloving – vibrations that exist within me.
     There is no satisfaction in conditional giving. There is no intrinsic joy from being given back. To love is not a way to get love: to love is to allow myself to be filled with love and warmed by love and smoothed and soothed by the passage of love.
     It no longer matters to me, as a conduit of love into the world, whether I am loved back. My role is simply to allow flow from the Cosmic source.
     I hold an image of many taps running water; each one pours into the sink below, contributing unique ingredients to the great lake of love in the world. Each individual is filled, and fulfilled, changed by the experience.  Nothing is unrequited or limited or scarce. Love is everything, and when it flows though us, we are everything, too..

     Jo Leath has been supporting clients through change and growth since the 1980s.
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