What is Love? - by Carol Dombrose

This is an article that Carol Dombrose wrote about a year before she passed on in 2013. Carol embodied an energy of unconditional Love as much as anyone I have met. She was a good friend and truly Love's Serving Being... jh

 

What is love?

 

“There is a light that shines beyond all things on Earth, beyond us all, beyond the very highest heavens.  This is the light that shines in our heart."     ~~ Chandogya Upanished

 

When all the games and dramas and stories are done and you reach a level of awareness and awakening where you can see beyond them all into a deeper level of experience – only then can you begin to know real love. 

 

You can love only when you do not possess or when you are not envious or not greedy or when you can be honoring and respectful no matter what the situation; only when you can have compassion that comes from a loving heart and not from the mind.  When you have consideration for all those in your presence --- only then are you touching love. 

 

Love is not just something that happens to you, it is a certain, special way of being alive.  Love is not something we can do.  It is not something that we can cultivate or practice.  True love is a happening, it is becoming a part of the river that is flowing, full of force and energy that overwhelms us.  When it happens it happens.  It is something that is so real and true and all encompassing that it literally takes over, it move us into a very high state of consciousness where there is only it.  We drop the stories, and all the illusions. 

 

When everything else stops, and we move into this state, then we will experience true love.  We move from a unique and separate individual to one who is a part of the magnificent whole where there is no separation but rather a knowing and feeling and understanding that this whole is life.  We move from loving in the mind to experiencing love in the heart. 

 

Love is where there is neither one nor many, where there is only love.  It is here that we can experience unconditional peace, bliss and happiness.  And as we are all learning, love is not something we can get or do.  Love is the benediction of the Divine. 

 

We find love right in our own heart.  When we know our own heart, we remember who we are, we remember the light that we are. We need only to look inside our own heart to know love at a deeper level.

 

I felt that connection to life when I was 5 years old and the oak tree in my front yard was my friend.  I talked to the tree and took care of its leaves in the Fall when they fell to the ground.  The whole world was mine.  I could live in peace, give love to my doll, build castles in the sand, have a tree for my friend.  The whole world was a place to love. 

 

But then as I grew and was trying to live the life I was taught to live, I can see now that my spiritual self – my connection to love that I wasn’t even aware of was keeping me on the path I was meant to live. 

 

A defining moment in my life was the death of my husband in 2001.  He was such a loving man I thought that my time with him had taught me all there was to know about love.  Yet after his death, I kept hearing this call to go deeper into love.  I was not really sure what that meant, but I felt pulled into a deeper connection to the Source of love. 

 

Within months of Larry’s death I was led to an old farmhouse and 3 acres of land in Strongsville where I started what is now called Angel House:  Life Enrichment Center.  As a Psychologist, just talking to people about their problems didn’t seem to be enough.  We needed to go deeper into who they were, into their creative self, their spiritual self.  This is what I wanted to provide at Angel House, a safe place for people to explore the deeper self.  I did that by providing in addition to counseling, classes in the creative and healing arts.  I didn’t think of Angel House as also being my place to explore.  But this is where my journey into the dimension of deeper love began.  And to my surprise, I have found that the journey led me right back into my own heart. 

 

Inside your heart is where you can find the Divine within.  Go there when you feel afraid or uncertain, you will find comfort, go there when you feel good and celebrate together with the Divine within you.  Know that you can never be separated from this Divine light.  It is part of you, it is who you are, you are never alone.  We are not separate from our Source.   

 

 

Synthesis...

Synthesis indicates wholeness and unity… An atmosphere of harmony and integrity brings both peace and satisfaction… Synthesis can be the coming together of many forces for a larger common good and goal….

At times, the period that creates a synthesis and wholeness is characterized by chaos, uncertainty, confusion and some dark energies… There can be a major breakup of old patterns and ego structures, so from the perspective of the personality there is a loss of control and center… the ego structure may be cracking apart so that more inclusive and superconscious energies may enter and rearrange things for a higher purpose…

The loss of personal meaning may also be termed an existential crisis… While there is a continued sense of being and Life energy, it is accompanied by a sense of worthlessness, even though a person has been satisfied and successful in many ways… It is as if the activities of a particular period have ended and the new direction or infusion of new inspiration has not happened… This may seem like we have entered a dark valley or dark night of the soul…

Synthesis brings the greatest level of integration which includes a deeper connection to meaning and purpose, a strong sense of connection to Life, and may be accompanied by waves of joy and peace. Often a person who experiences this deeper synthesis moves toward a natural expression of kindness, compassion and service to others.