Love, and Do Whatever you Please -Saint Augustine
Prompt: Do you willingly take risks, knowing you might fail regarding matters of love?
Thank you Riku Arikiri for the thought-provoking prompt. Joseph Lieungh has set the tone for the week to look beyond good or bad or the dual nature of things which neatly fits into the idea of love.
Love in the true sense is to risk everything. But what are we risking is the question?
If we are investing our identities, our happiness, securities(financial or otherwise) in a relationship, then we risk losing that. But love itself can’t be tied down to anything. It has no baggage, and it is also not a bargain in that sense. Love exists in the dimension that goes beyond transactional aspects of our life.
It could also explain many stories that from outside may feel like a sacrifice to us*. The individuals might be acting out of love. It may look like they are giving up on things but if it is coming from a place of love they may regard and experience it differently.
I guess mother’s love comes closest as an example in our world. Love expressed is causeless, needs no justification, reasons, or expectations. It simply is.
And if the relationships end for whatever reasons, how could anyone claim those moments of love and connection as a failure? By all means, from the retrospective lens, it may feel like a failure. But if we have ever been in love or felt loved we all know that moment of connection and sharing is complete in itself.
I invariably see love as a learning experience and you get better at loving yourself and others. There is no destination point for love.It only gets richer and deeper when you let yourself go further without fear of loss or regret.
Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.”
― Saint Augustine, Homilies on the First Epistle of John
*This excludes situations when people sacrifice at the cost of one’s own mental or physical health.
More on love in the below article if it interests you. Thank you for reading!
