Love Lessons

Why are some people in our lives? Why is it that there is a sense of destiny in some relationships? Karma? Maybe. Or maybe there is another word for it.

Because of the chemistry between individuals, some are uniquely suited to teach us lessons about love. Others may be uniquely suited to teach us lessons about wisdom.

To be a teacher of love takes a special strength because sometimes the lessons we may present our teacher would make another person run and hide. When that person mirrors back love to us, there is a resilience and determined open heartedness that shows us the true nature of love, forgiveness, and kindness that is always possible, but not always practiced.

Those lessons are really the lessons that all of us can use, but because sometimes we are stubborn or thick headed, we might only be able to accept those lessons from some people, not others.

In a perfect world, I guess everyone could be a teacher for everyone else, but realistically, we have to be open to receiving those lessons. And the chemistry between us and other people might not inspire us to be open.

Some teachers might go so far as to say that all lessons are lessons about love, even if the lesson is about wisdom, or craftsmanship, business or relationships, the lesson is always about love.

To some degree that is true. If you love your work enough to do it well, that is craftsmanship. If you love the people you do business with, you show them love. If you care enough to study a subject to learn it well, that is also a labor of love.

And relationships? There are some people who insist on showing us love even when we screw up, either deliberately or accidentally. That love is quite amazing to behold and to experience.

Are those people who can show love born with that ability or do they learn it? I would say both, although it is fair to say that we all at least need to be reminded once in a while, and pick up a lesson, whether it is the hard way or the easy way.

Babies are born simply as givers and receivers of love. What they learn along the way in life influences how fluently they continue to give and receive love. There seem to be millions of variations in how much people are able to give and receive love. Since we are not all uniform in any other way, I guess that is just natural.

This piece is to thank those people who showed me the way to know this.