Category Archives: Waking Up

In the Gap Between Stimulus and Response is Where Real Love Occurs

Posted on March 12, 2016 by John

I’ll meet you there (to riff on Rumi). Or better yet: Start meeting your partner there. Choice is sexy. When partners choose when and where and how they want to have sex, that is sexy. When they make a choice to engage … Continue reading →

Posted in Character, Conscious Love, Intimacy, Intimate Relationships, Love, Love is a Choice, Love is a Decision, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Perspective, Real Love, Self-Awareness, The Examined Life, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Love Means Opening Yourself Up

Posted on February 15, 2016 by John

. .   A big part of love means consciously opening yourself up to your beloved and sharing with your partner from what’s best in you. This means consciously choosing and risking being vulnerable and trusting your partner and revealing … Continue reading →

Posted in "The Four Loves", C.S. Lewis, Conscious Love, Critical Thinking, Love is a Choice, Love is a Commitment, Love is a Decision, Love Is a Verb, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Personal Growth, Perspective, Real Love, Self-Awareness, Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Examined Life, Truth, Vulnerability, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

How to Know If You Are REALLY Ready For a Real Relationship

Posted on April 10, 2014 by John

How do you know if you are (or your partner is) really ready for a REAL relationship. Condition 1: You have strong feelings or a strong sense of attraction for another. You are infatuated with him or her. You are … Continue reading →

Posted in Character, Commitment, Conscious Love, Critical Thinking, Martin Luther King Jr., Mature Love, Personal Growth, Perspective, Reactive, Real Love, Responsibility, Self-Awareness, Spiritual Growth, The Examined Life, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

May God Bless Us All . . . with Discomfort, Anger, Tears, and Foolishness

Posted on December 5, 2013 by John

. . . This is not by any means what we normally think of when asking God to bless us.  Maybe when asking God to “bless” our enemies or oppressors, but not when asking him to bless our family and … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Conscience, Courage, Critical Thinking, Mother Teresa, Personal Growth, Ruth Fox, Saint Teresa of Avila, Spiritual Growth, The Examined Life, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

How To Begin Being More Thankful

Posted on November 28, 2013 by John

Gratitude, like love, is best defined not as a feeling, but as something so much more and different: as a choice, a behavior, an attitude, as a way of seeing things, as a way of perceiving and thinking about things. … Continue reading →

Posted in "Otherwise", Gratitude, Jane Kenyon, The Examined Life, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

On Love & Life

Posted on November 22, 2013 by John

. . The story I posted yesterday (about Taylor Morris & Danielle Kelly) led me to reflect  on (and to write about) the nature of love—and life—as well as character, commitment, devotion, for better or worse, and what it means … Continue reading →

Posted in "Siddhartha", Commitment, Critical Thinking, Death, Denial, Reactive, Stephen Covey, Taylor Morris, The Examined Life, Truth, Viktor Frankl, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Way To Begin Loving Anything More

Posted on September 25, 2013 by John

. . “The way to begin loving anything is to realize that it might be lost.” – G. K. Chesterton This is a great way to begin growing (up) as a human being: to begin really reflecting on how fragile we … Continue reading →

Posted in "If You Knew", Death, Denial, Ellen Bass, Gratitude, Gurdjieff, The Examined Life, Truth, Vulnerability, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Distracted Living versus Living Lovingly

Posted on September 20, 2013 by John

. Alternately titled “Long-Term Happiness versus Short-Term Happiness” . You know of the disease in Central Africa called sleeping sickness. First its victims get slightly tired, then the disease gradually intensifies until the afflicted person lies asleep all the time … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Thinking, Dalai Lama, Distraction, Mature Love, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Perspective, Real Love, Roy Walsh, Spiritual Growth, The Examined Life, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

What Is Love? (Is Love Fundamentally a Feeling?)

Posted on September 5, 2013 by John

We human beings, in general, tend to be confused about Love–what it is, what it isn’t, what it means to be in love, et cetera. For example: Is love primarily an emotion?  Is it something we feel?  And if so, … Continue reading →

Posted in Mature Love, Personal Growth, Perspective, Real Love, Spiritual Growth, The Examined Life, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

C.S. Lewis on Why to Be Moral

Posted on September 4, 2013 by John

  . . The sort of idea that the word Morality raises in a good many people’s minds is that it’s something that interferes—Morality is something that stops you from having a good time. In reality, moral rules are directions … Continue reading →

Posted in C.S. Lewis, Conscience, Critical Thinking, Love, Morality, Perspective, The Examined Life, Truth, Waking Up | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment