Chapter 14

LONGINGS of LOVE

Love is the pleasure of drawing to ourselves and becoming one with what attracts us.  When we take in the feeling of a beautiful day, we respond to the sunshine, not to the heavy traffic.  We make this choice when our inner selves are drawn more to joy than to stress.  The sunshine is what we love.  In the same way, when we love others, we are drawn to a part of them that responds to our innermost selves.  It might be kindness we sense in them, or it might be their ability to dominate us.  In either case, we long to become one with what strikes a responsive chord in our hearts.

The feeling of love causes us to draw to ourselves what love desires.  Take, for example, a love for plant life.  This not only brings us pleasure as we watch ferns green and flowers bloom.  It also leads us to go outside and “work” in the yard and do all kinds of things related to this affection.  It draws to us others who have the same interest and pleasure.  Our loves bring into our lives what reflects longings that arise from our innermost being.

In the same way, we can be attracted to what is destructive to our well-being.  Think of some type of negative situation that keeps recurring in your life.  Painful as it may be, in some way you are drawn to that.  It is not just bad luck which causes us to repeat hurtful experiences.  We harbor a love for some aspect of what is happening there.  When our own consciousness is filled with pain, we feel somehow satisfied or justified in drawing to ourselves the part of the world which reflects that same view of life.

Such behavior is clearly a distortion of the perception of good.  The root of the problem lies in an inner picture of ourselves as unworthy.  We reach out to the world to take in what feels comfortable to that false sense of self.  It is easy to lose sight of our divine nature as we struggle with the problems of life.  We take in our failures and disappointments, often forgetting or rejecting the successes and personal growth arising from them, because the negative feels comfortable in a heart that fails to rejoice in itself.

We can restore to our consciousness the true concept of our divine nature.  Once we feel the good in ourselves, we will naturally respond and draw to ourselves the boundless good in the world around us.

MUSIC in ME

There is music in me now,
that outside chorus
echoes, expands, sings

From the second I turned 
to hear the same song
that reached from my being

When evening’s saving sound 
led me to turn in the cool air 
to draw to myself the harmony 
irresistible to my heart

When all life joined in the 
symphony it longed to be.

AFFIRMATION

The universe brings to me the longings of my heart.  What I love will naturally and easily come into my life.

I appreciate and nurture the good in me and I draw on the divinity that flows through me to fill my being with the love that enriches my life.  In the same way, I clear out the negativity in my consciousness, having no desire to draw to myself what is destructive.

The power of the universe responds to my effort to be one with the divinity within me. My world is filled with the loving harmony I desire.