Genuine Love

I have summed up a little bit about love from M. Scott Peck's book, "The Road Less Traveled." It is a truly beautiful and inspirational book, highly recommended for your spiritual growth! I also recommend "Love, " by Leo Buscaglia.

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Genuine love is transformative. The act of love is an extension of the self. It is not a feeling. The misconception that love is a feeling exists because we confuse cathecting with loving. It is when we "fall out of love" that genuine love can begin and that true love can be tested. Genuine love involves a desire for the differentiation of the other. As in the case with true love, "sacrifices" on behalf of the growth of the other result in equal or greater growth of the self. Genuine love involves a true desire for the uniqueness and separateness of one's partner, and the cherishing of that specialness. 

"But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping,
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."

-The Prophet, pp. 15-16