Tag Archives: Real Love

When It Comes to Love & Your Relationships Are You Committed or Just Interested?

Posted on March 13, 2013 by

. . There’s a difference between being interested in something and being committed to something.  When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient.  When you’re committed to something, you make the time to do it. … Continue reading →

Posted in Kenneth Blanchard, Love is a Commitment, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Mental Health, Personal Growth, Real Love, Spiritual Growth, The Examined Life, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Love (& a Whitman’s Sampler)

Posted on February 14, 2013 by

. “For children love is a feeling; for adults, it is a decision. Children wait to learn if their love is true by seeing how long it lasts; adults make their love true by never wavering from their commitment.” ― … Continue reading →

Posted in M. Scott Peck, Mature Love, Mental Health, Orson Scott Card, Real Love, Spiritual Growth, The Examined Life, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Only Proactive People Can Genuinely Love Others, Reactive People Can’t (updated)

Posted on January 17, 2013 by

(The following is abridged and adapted and modified from Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change”) Between stimulus and response, human beings have the freedom to choose—but only *if* we develop and … Continue reading →

Posted in "Man's Search for Meaning", "Siddhartha", Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Critical Thinking, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, Hermann Hesse, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, Love is a Choice, Love is a Decision, Love is Not a Feeling, Luke 6:32-35, M. Scott Peck, Mature Love, Mental Health, Perspective, Proactivity, Reactive, Real Love, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Examined Life, The Road Less Traveled, Truth, Viktor Frankl, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Love, the Feeling, versus Love, the Capacity (Immature Love versus Mature Love, part 2)

Posted on January 8, 2013 by

. A properly (or fully) developed human being is a Loving human being. Love, ultimately, is a capacity. A capacity that develops as the result of developing many other capacities and virtues and behavioral predispositions. Some of these are of … Continue reading →

Posted in chapter 13, Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, Friendship, Generosity, Gratitude, Honesty, Immature Love, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Perspective, Real Love, Self-Love, Spiritual Growth, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Why Real Love Is So Difficult & Rare (updated 12-26-2012)

Posted on December 26, 2012 by

. (This is an updated version of a post I first publish on Feb 28, 2012 — “Why Real Love Is So Difficult & Rare“) . . “We have lost our sense of values: when your fence falls, you mend … Continue reading →

Posted in Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Czeslaw Milosz, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, Generosity, Honesty, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, Love, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Self-Extension, Spiritual Growth, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Thomas Merton, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

C. S. Lewis on Love & Kindness (and the difference between the two)

Posted on December 20, 2012 by

. . The following is abridged & adapted from C. S. Lewis’s book “The Problem of Pain,” pages 35-44, & 58.  The parenthetical remarks are mine. . Are we not in an increasingly cruel age? Perhaps we are. But I … Continue reading →

Posted in "The Problem of Pain", C.S. Lewis, Emotional Maturity, Immature Love, Kindness, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Perspective, Real Love, Spiritual Growth, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

How Asking Just *One* Question Can Save Your Relationship

Posted on October 25, 2012 by

It’s easy to fall into a rut with your partner, to let things get stale, boring, monotonous, routine, to take each other for granted. But that’s not Love.  That’s not what Real Love does.  Genuine Love is about cherishing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, Love, Love is a Choice, Love is a Decision, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Real Love | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Thomas Merton on Love

Posted on August 1, 2012 by

. “Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.” – Anna Quindlen When we are leading a life based on real … Continue reading →

Posted in "The Velveteen Rabbit", 1 John 4:16-18, Anna Quindlen, Chris Rock, Conscious Love, Courage, Emotional Maturity, Intimate Relationships, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Schnarch, Self-Extension, Spiritual Growth, Thomas Merton, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Thoreau on Love

Posted on July 14, 2012 by

Love is a severe critic.  Hate (as well as self-centeredness and self-interest) can pardon more than love.  The heart is blind; but Love is not blind.  None of the gods is so discriminating.  We may love and not elevate one … Continue reading →

Posted in Conscience, Courage, Intimacy, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Spiritual Growth, Thoreau, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Have You Ever Been Truly Loved?

Posted on June 23, 2012 by

Have You Ever Been Truly Loved? Think about it.  What would that look like?  What would another have to do–what lengths would another have to go through–to let you know that you are deeply loved, cherished, adored, understood; that you … Continue reading →

Posted in C.S. Lewis, Raymond Carver, Real Love, Truth, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , | 40 Comments