I actually spent a considerable amount of time with this question at the end of 2016. It was more like I wrestled with it then contemplated it. Why? Well I kept hearing the word being used, and the truth is I realized I really did not know what the word meant. What the heck is love? That is what I would hear when someone or another would give me a “I love you”, or say” it is all love! , or how about “love being the opposite of fear”, all I could hear was, what exactly is LOVE?

I could hear my grandmother saying, LOVE, what is LOVE, you grandfather and I have been together for 52 years, what is this L…O…V…E….. There is no way to write it the way she said it, she just sort of rolled it out in all caps, like it was alien being. Her love was devotion and loyalty. Her love was solid, like a piece of cheese salted on Italian bread, toasted, and served as if it was the best food ever, and the truth is, it was. She did not understand this, L…O…V…E… thing that I had imagined I was looking for in my early 20’s and found out that recently that is was still seeking to understand.

So what did I find, LOVE is actually everything. It is not a person that you love, although it might include that. It is not a thing that you love, although it is possible to love something. LOVE is actually everything. It is everything as you see it clearer and clearer. When you are young you are usually in love with the idea of another and loving someone. It is so fun to take the focus from yourself and really connect with another. Actually, even as you age this is possible, but also true is the fact that as you age love like this cannot sustain your every breath like it can in youth. It is similar to loving an animal, you melt when they are cuddled up with you, or cringe when they are hurt, but for many moments in between your life goes on without the constant Love of the other. So what then is this love that is everything, including feelings for another.
Well try this, look at some graffiti, or if you know someone with a tattoo, maybe they will let you stare at it for a few minutes. See the art, notice the lines, colors, now think about the artist, his life, imagine his family, his pain, his journey to make this art. Feel his presence, feel this sudden love.
Now try this, take a walk alone in a very noisy or even the most peaceful place possible, either will do because again, love is everything and everywhere, it is you. Move slow, feel your feet being supported by the ground, smell the world around you, see the colors, the sky, notice that the earth almost breaths its own breath. If you see another, be conscious of them, they are a living and breathing being, with a mother and a past, and a story. If there is a tree or a building, wonder of its history, it past, its future. Are you in love? If you have expanded into a bigger vision, a bigger clarity you will feel it, if you feel resistant, closed, it does not mean love is not there, it means you are not everywhere yet. It is you that creates the love.

This is it, love is you, but only when you are in it. It happens to be everywhere and anywhere you are willing to allow it. You become it, you are it, we all are, but many of us are just not ready to see it.

And if case you are ready to say, bull***, there are plenty of things that are not love, they are horrible, they are hate, they are terrible, they are violent, atrocious ,…….. Are they? Have you allowed the story, do you see the pain that created the story, the history, the journey of the one or many. Can you feel their pain, the agony. Yes, it might appear as hate, or fear, but what if you sat and stared in their eyes, saw their childhood, felt the pain of their youth, it you felt the essence then you will know, love everywhere, is it you allowing it? Can you for one minute let go to see it? Love is everywhere, and in everything, and you are that love.
So for me, love is everything. Everything that I connect myself to.