Love Thyself

We have all heard the expression “Know Thyself”. It is considered very sage advise, and yet how much more powerful and profound might be the injunction “Love Thyself”? Spring carries with it a the tremendous focus on romantic love (or lack thereof). It can be a difficult time for many of us. Some of us have had hurtful, harmful romantic relationships. Some of us are not “in” a relationship... and often times these experiences leave us feeling unlovable. As if, for these very reasons... our history, our experience, our circumstances... no one could truly love us. Love becomes, to quote the song “The Rose”, “for the lucky and the strong.”
Perhaps you’ve also heard, “You cannot love another until you can love yourself.” Great conventional wisdom.... but in our society, self-love is rather seen as being stuck up or full of yourself and those aren’t very desirable traits. Yet, self-confidence is OK; but blowing your own “Horn”.... mixed reviews. The real kicker here, is not so much how you feel about yourself, but how the world might judge you for how you feel about yourself. Basically, Loving YourSelf is looked down upon and deeply misunderstood. Consider for a moment how you might react to a friend or acquaintance saying happily to you “I love myself. I so appreciate my own company. I enjoy the way I think and act. I am happy being me. I really wouldn’t care to be anyone else. I’m fantastic.”
And yet which of us, deep down inside wouldn’t love to be able to authentically say this of ourselves? No arrogance, no aggrandizement, just an expression of simple, genuine self love and appreciation?
Follow me here. Let us take to heart the premise that all of Life is created by a Loving, Intelligent consciousness. That consciousness is indivisible. It is always, only, One. It expresses itself though and throughout all of Life. It expresses itself through You. It has created You from Itself. You, like a drop of water in the ocean, are a part of it. If the Ocean loves its own majesty, its own movement, its own power, its very being.... then, it loves all of itself. Every drop is cherished. For it requires the Whole to be Whole. It requires All to be One.
If the Loving Intelligence that Creates everything resides in you, then you are by default loved and Cherished by the Creator.... of which you are a part. Touching this truth is powerful and profound. You are not required by Creation to be anything other that what you are. You are precisely as you were created to be. You are an integral part of the Whole. You do not need to earn the Creator’s love because you were created from that Love. For spring and every season, every day - open your heart, your mind, your spirit to the Love that Is YOU. Express love in all of its forms as an expression of your True and Actual Self. Loving your Self is worshiping Creator/Creation. Appreciating beauty, within you and around you, is holy and sacred. You Understand. Be the sacred vessel for the expression of Love.... begin at your beginning.... Love Thyself.