Teaching and Learning Only Love

I have come to learn that every action we take (or do not) and every word we speak (or do not), in every moment, teaches love.

I once worked at a corporation that was owned, operated and led by its founder.  By the end of my 9-year term of employment with this firm, I came to, at times, dislike this founder.  The founder taught me many things.  In many cases, I perceived these things I was taught were bad things.  At times, I even became angry at the founder for the way I perceived the founder treated the people who worked for the corporation.  And I remained angry at this founder even after I left the firm.

As I worked through my anger in the months following my departure from this company, I got to a point of resolving myself to the knowledge that the negative things the founder had taught me were blessings.  However, I did not like having to see all the things this founder taught me were negative.  I did not want to carry that ‘weight’ around.

Then one day it dawned on me.  I realized that the founder—even ‘this’ founder—taught me why it was so important to love.  In releasing myself of all the karma associated with the myriad of incidences that I perceived were negative, I peeled the layers of onion away until there were no more layers to peel away.  At the core of all these perceptions and learnings was the knowledge that I was being taught how to love.  Yes, I may have been experiencing how to love through someone who did not themselves consciously set out to teach me how to love.  And my perception of this founder’s actions at the time may not have even closely resembled teachings of love.  However, I can now look back and realize that this is in fact what I learned—why it is so important to love.

It does not matter how I learned to love.  Sometimes we are taught life’s most valuable lessons (e.g., how to love) in the most unexpected places.  Fortunately, I can now perceive this founder did teach me why it is so important to love.  I am truly blessed and grateful for the totality of that lesson.  It often felt painful.  And it certainly did not feel like I was being taught about love—not in a setting like Corporate Canada from what many around me saw as a stereotypical leader who was perceived by most as ruthless and dictatorial.  But that founder did, in every sense of the word, teach me why it is so important to love.

The experience related above has weaved itself into my every-day life to help me realize that every action I take (or do not) and every word I speak (or do not), in every moment, teaches love to those around me.  While this is liberating, it also comes with great responsibility.  I would prefer to teach love by showing love; not by showing the lack of it.  I would prefer to teach love by acts of kindness, compassion, caring, empathy and service (to name a few); not by showing the lack of these acts.  I would like to teach love to ‘being’ love.  I cannot fail to teach love; that is comforting.  How I choose to teach love is pause for careful contemplation.

And so it is the purpose of our time here in this place, to learn and to love.  The learn how to love is the ultimate, divine union of our soul contracts.

Shanti, Namaste, Agapé