I closed my eyes and just breathed for a moment as I prepared to write this blog. What came up is “I am Infinite Being flowing through this human experience.”
Ok then. That’s a good place to hang out. Interesting it should show up just now as my beloved and I were talking about attachment when we went for our walk this afternoon. We were reflecting on how much harder it is to be happy when we are attached either to people or things the way the were in the past, or certain ideas, etc.
We form all kinds of attachments in life and where we have the greatest attachment is where we will find our greatest grief.
I think we have a tendency to equate love with attachment in our culture, but I’ve come to realize that simply isn’t so. Attachment has a fearful element to it, the fear of losing, the fear of change even the fear of forgetting.
Love doesn’t have that kind of concern; love unites, harmonizes and attracts but it is more of a flow than a destination. It rejoices and makes room for differences and change whereas attachment is much more self-concerned and closed fisted so to speak. What I mistook for love in my earlier years was definitely more attachment than the way I see love now. I’m actually glad I had those experiences though because it has helped me get very clear about the difference in the way I experience the two and I have to say without reservation, love wins out.
I do admit that the two can in some ways become entangled though. We can love deeply and, because of our beliefs and unresolved past issues, find ourselves hanging on to people and ideas and things, thinking we need them in order to be happy or that we would be dishonouring someone if we let them go. Letting go doesn’t mean we don’t still feel love for them or it, it means that we are willing to let the love flow freely no matter what. That is one of my ‘goals’ in life; to let love flow no matter what. I still get caught up in attachments to certain points of view and opinions that block that flow but knowing the difference in the way it feels enables me to recognize it quickly and to let go and get back in the flow.
We have all the tools we need to be able to recognize what’s really happening and to make the changes we want to make. We just need to learn how to use them. I am so grateful for all the teachers I have had along the way that have helped me to do so.
Namaste
