The human heart exists in beauty and in limitation.  Its beauty lies in the fact that it is capable of great love, great tenderness, and great vulnerability.  It's limitation lies in the same fact.  Yet, the limitation of today is the expansion of tomorrow, as the heart begins to feel a greater Love moving within itself, and as it awakens more fully to its own power of expression.

The love that the human heart calls its own, the love that it seeks in order to satisfy its desires and hold at bay the sense of loneliness that would exist without it – such love is only a small portion of what the human heart is capable of.  Because of its need for self-protection, and because it perceives itself to be small when, in fact, it is quite large, the human heart fastens on the one love that it hopes will nourish its life and fill its empty spaces, instead of the larger Love that would restore to it the experience of its own wholeness.

The heart has been taught to expect certain things of life and to give certain things to life.  In this sense, it is influenced by current perceptions regarding the nature of relationships and the nature of love, and no longer knows its own potential.  It no longer realizes the vastness from which it came.  Such a heart often goes through its days confined within a small sphere of contact with others, not perceiving its relationship to the greater Whole, not perceiving the great Heart of humanity that beats within its own.  It therefore, understandably, seizes upon the experience of 'falling in love' with one other as the central experience of life, because this event lets it know more fully than anything else, what it means to be truly alive.

Yet, even this experience of love which is so profoundly moving and enriching to life can also be limiting.  It can limit the knowledge of what love IS, believing it to be embodied within one relationship, whereas in truth the intensity of love, the depth of love, the joy of love, and the tenderness of love, are part of what it means to be alive. These qualities belong to Love itself, and to the deeper nature of the heart as it brings its essence into everyday experience.

With a more awakened heart, it is possible to be deeply in love with life.  It is possible to deeply love one's own being.  It is possible to become identified with love to such a degree that one wants to extend it everywhere.  These possibilities exist but must be awakened within the human heart.  They exist, but they must be perceived as real. 

The relationship with a beloved partner is one expression of limitless love. Such a relationship is often singled out among all others and asked to compensate the self for what is lacking in the rest of life. However, love is not meant to be confined within such small quarters.  For the deepest bonds of love between two who love resonate with the great harmonic of the universe.  They resonate with the music of Creation.  They are part of that Creation, and can only find their truest and most complete expression when experienced as part of a greater Whole.  Indeed, a complete partnership in love will seek to reach out to others – will seek to reach out to the world in order to bless it.  Part of this naturally happens through bringing new life into the world – through children and the contribution they make to the future.  Another part happens through the extension of love directly - through one's conscious participation in the great circle of Life.

Many who love today still believe that love is limited and that there is not enough to go around.  Therefore, one must concentrate on the few who are the closest – on children, parents, family. and friends.  This perception of love is based on a heart that does not yet know itself.  It is based on past learning, not on what actually is. The perception of the smallness of the human heart arises out of the history of separation from the wellspring of Infinite Love and the Spirit that dwells within all.  Nevertheless, this well remains, and the water is still there.  And those who look for it will find it within and can allow it to enrich the life that they lead. 

For each human heart holds within itself a spark of the Divine.  And each human heart is capable of embracing not only others, but its own existence as well. This is the love out of which the human heart has been fashioned which contains the Divine within the human. This is the love that is meant to encircle the earth, and to restore and nourish all of life.

Related Writings:

The Heart's Journey

An Absence of Strangers

Article Section -  A New Consciousness