Article January 16, 1984 Issue

The love that frees

FEROL AUSTEN

If we have an appreciation of our own worth, based on a secure understanding of God and our oneness with Him, we just don't ever need to feel lonely.

Unfortunately we are educated from an early age—by parents, friends, relatives, and practically everything else—to equate being alone with being lonely. But if we have a deep perception of our own real being as God's noble creation, and if we actively express His intelligence and goodness in whatever we do, we won't need to depend on others for love or approval. And at the same time we free our loved ones to love us in their own time and in their own way. Instead of begging for or demanding love, we get ourselves spiritually straight and let the human expressions of that great Love that already embraces us come as they will.

We all want and need, in varying degrees, the understanding, affection, and company of others. But to look for any kind of security in human relationships alone, in and of themselves, is to tie ourselves—and our own spiritual progress—to a fragile support. Our relationships with others may represent a feast or a famine, but we won't go into periodic tailspins of disappointment, or have to go through emotional upheaval, if we can keep human dependencies in spiritual perspective and let our human relationships rest on a spiritual basis.

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