Romantic love is not a physical attribute, it comes from the spiritual realm and is shared with the physical realm. We can be confused about romantic love when it has been combined with physical attributes.

ROMANTIC LOVE
By Rev. Cheril Goodrich ©

God is romantically in love with Creation.

There are two ways of looking at love. One is from a physical point of view and one is from a spiritual point of view. When we look at love from a spiritual point of view we find love in the purest sense of the word. This is because love is an eternal quality that is brought with us into time from our eternal nature. When we consider the unconditional love that a mother has for her child, or the love that a child returns to his/her mother, we can acknowledge this kind of love as something that does not come from time because it is universally accepted by mothers and babies everywhere. In other words it is not a learned experience. Unconditional love does not originate from a body sensation or a particular localized feeling in the body. In other words it is not found in the body, as stress would be. It is a feeling that seems to wash over the body. It is whole and complete within itself and defies a physical explanation. This is because it comes from the eternal mind. We confuse it as being physical because it feels like it originates with the body. In truth it is a feeling that our eternal mind or God is sharing with us. This is how God shares His Being with us. Eternal Love moves from the eternal mind to the place that our mind is still connected with eternity. As that place is lit with eternal Love it moves through our mind and we feel the effects in the body of unconditional Love that extends from eternity.
True romantic love is experienced in much the same way. It defies explanation and is whole and complete within itself. It does not ask for anything from anyone because of its wholeness and completeness. The whole purpose behind romantic love is to share. This is how God shares romantic love with His creation. Wholly and completely without asking anything be given back. This is how we can be sure that our love is of our higher mind and also how to tell if it is real. When our mind is in tune with the romantic Love of God, we radiate Love to another without doing anything.
Reality and truth are of Heaven. We do not have to add or take away anything that is real. Confusion of reality comes from what we have learned in our physical experiences. For instance, if we grow up with the idea that abuse is acceptable, our mind may attach abuse to the idea of love when abuse is used in conjunction with love. Because our mind believes our parents are love, if they are abusive, love becomes an abusive physical experience. The true meaning of love becomes lost and violated by the physical experience of abuse that has attached itself to love. In truth love is not a contradiction and is lacking in nothing. When abuse is added to love our mind begins to think that in order to experience love, we must also experience abuse. Because this is really not what we want, we are in constant conflict about what love is and this will spill over into our relationships.
Once our mind has associated something with love that is in opposition to eternal love our mind continues to look for someone who can fulfill the distorted picture of love that we grew up with. We do not do this at a conscious level and will deny this is what we want, but deep within the awareness of what we have learned in time our mind will seek to look for distorted versions of love. In a case where it learned abuse, it would look for an abusive relationship to complete a distorted perception of love because it has learned that love or wholeness means abuse. Consciously we look to the physical representation of this distorted perception and believe we have found “true love” through a physical body. But true love is not a symbol of abuse that we may believe of another person who occupies a body. Abuse is a learned experience brought into the present by a mind that has learned lessons about love that include abuse and until the abuse is separated from love, distorted love will prevail.
Romantic love just is. It cannot be explained and we do not offer excuses as to why another person cannot live up to our expectations. If we are offering excuses, then there is an attachment to our romantic love and it is this attachment that must be found so the true definition of romantic love can enter. Romantic love then becomes an undistorted version of love and it comes from us and is extended to someone who will share their love with us. Romantic love will seek for itself, just like distorted love seeks for itself. We do not have to “find” it, it will find us. The purpose of Love cannot be changed and must be shared, not taken for what it is believed another individual can provide.
Romantic love is higher than the physical experience which means that it does not emanate from the physical body or anything that is learned in a physical experience. When we confuse love with being physical we confuse a physical experience with our spiritual being. Love is not an experience, it is who we are. This being the case it is held within the protection of Eternal Law where the physical interpretation of love does not mean anything. Nothing can violate that which is held in eternity. Any feelings that are confused with the true meaning of love are violating the purpose of love at a physical level. This kind of violation is impossible from the eternal mind, but in the physical realm false love is prevalent.
Sometimes physical relationships end. A physical ending to a relationship can not end our spiritual connection with another. Any love relationship that holds the true meaning of love maintains the original feelings because they are still held within the protection of Love’s embrace. This makes them real, but not necessarily from a physical point of view. Love does not retreat from reality in our physical assessment of a situation. If a relationship ends it is because of our decision. Love does not change. If it were possible that real love could change, it would never be possible to love again because the stability of real love would be forever gone. This does not mean we stay in a relationship that is not serving a useful purpose. True love does not evolve, but our physical interpretation of it often does. Sometimes it is time to move on and learn other lessons.
No matter how hard we try we cannot change or improve on the original idea of romantic love. It is here and it is now. It does not impose but freely gives by moving through us and giving to any relationship we may be in, when we let it. Whatever we give away, we get to keep. This is cause and effect, or giving and receiving. Allowing love to move through us keeps us from free from the physical aspects that have been placed on love. When we experience this kind of Love we can be sure that it is real and it has meaning.