I Love You - Melani Marx

I love you

These words have the power to heal, mend, build a bridge, draw another closer, open hearts, acknowledge a bond, speak to a state of being that is present and so much more.

It is also how we express the recognition of the Divine in another.

Three small yet powerful heart opening words.

Love does not mean you agree with another’s choices, their politics, even their way of showing up in the world.

It does not necessarily even mean you like them. I remember vividly at some point in my parenting looking at each of my amazing offspring and thinking “I love you, but I sure don’t like you right now.”

As I go through the world I rest more and more often in the love and appreciation I feel for my fellow travelers on this exquisite planet.

Love in its native state is not conditional. It is the glue that holds the Cosmos together.

Love is not personal. It is a resonant field we rest in.

The bird’s wing, the peonies luscious bloom, the river’s roar – these are all love made visible.

Love is the “thing” we all desire.

For most of us it is an unconscious driving force. We feel an innate desire to love and be loved. We long to feel seen. Heard. We want our big loving hearts to be received by another.

And. Love is a force we humans are also deeply afraid of. We back away from its potent power to transform. From the vulnerability we see as weakness that comes with an open heart. The transparency of being truly seen.

Love is inextricably woven into the Silence that is present when we stop and drop into what and who we truly are. It streams through the pure undifferentiated Source energy that courses through the very center of each of our energetic anatomy.

We are wrapped and held – in Love.

And yet the heart herself can get bruised. She can close. Tuck old emotions from long ago into her deepest recesses that just could not be borne or experienced fully at the time.

The heart creates defenses in anticipation of the certainty of further pain. Armoring itself with those old buried hurts against the soft tenderness that walks hand in hand with an open, generative heart.

Love is not something we earn, get, deserve, have to prove ourselves in order to receive.

Love is intrinsically who and what we are. Think of a young child and the magnetic quality of their open hearted attention to the world. That is pure Love.

We come into this world and innately share love, share ourselves freely.

Many of us also choose to learn to unburden the heart and psyche so we may once again experience a heart that unconditionally welcomes and blesses. A heart that is a conduit for the immense curative and generative power that is the cosmic glue of creation.

Nothing that will withstand time can be built in hatred. Only the presence of Love itself can forge bonds that will transcend time and space.

Love is not naive. It is courageous. Upright. Appreciative.

Love is expansive. Firm. Inclusive. Kind.

Love wishes every being well.

Love speaks the truth with a velvet mouth whenever possible.

The heart’s power to generate and radiate energy that effortlessly syncs with other hearts when the human, who’s chest it is planted in is in a place of appreciation, gratitude and resting in Love has been well documented.

Cultivating love. Welcoming love begins at home.

Unfortunately many of us did not experience unconditional love from our primary caregivers and original families.

We learned from folks who’s wounds were deeply crystallized and unaddressed that love was a scarce commodity. That in order to feel its nutritive and vital life nourishing qualities we had to leave parts of ourselves behind.

Bury them deep. Adopt masks of survival. Conform. Perform.

The beautiful and hopeful news is that we can, with the unlimited power of Love itself call all parts of ourselves back. Assist those young parts to release the traumas and injuries they’ve held for us for so long, so that we could grow into the very one who can now go back and see them.

Free them. Nourish them with our good understanding and appreciation, our more mature stance.

Self love and reverence is how we do this.

Loving those tender young aspects that experienced the pain of non- acceptance. Presencing to the pain. Claiming them back into the fold, to sit in welcome around the hearth of our hearts.

Self love is the warm bath water we can unwind in. Let go. Unfurl. Thaw out the crystallization of old unmet needs.

Everyone of us. Every single aspect of us. Every action we express needs more Love. Most especially the parts we have kept hidden in shame.

This morning was at least the third time in two days that another beautiful and radiant human on the other side of the world or the country unexpectedly told me – I love you.

My heart cracked open, tears let loose at the recognition of the Love that WE are. At the meeting of the One Heart. At the radiance of possibility. Of the transcendence of time and space.

We connect with others, reflect back and forth our own Divine Nature. To help us see ourselves, into ourselves – the shadow and the light.

As the years have progressed and I have and do continue my own reclamation work with all the self love available to me in any given moment – my capacity to experience love, express love, tolerate and open to love has increased as self love, self reverence, self inclusion and self regard increase.

This is one of the unexpected fruits of inner work.

The aperture once so tiny has grown wider. More inclusive.

My understanding of other has grown in direct proportion to my understanding of self.

This feels miraculous to me.

The miracle and promise of Love itself.

I love you.

Wherever you are. Whatever you may be feeling challenged by at this juncture. Take a moment – if you choose – to open and receive. To meet love. To allow love to grow within you.

I love you. I see you. I am with you.

May your heart and mine meet in recognition and expand into the most whole and holy possibility for us all.