We can know what love is, how to give it to others and receive from others all the love we want as we experience it returning to us better than it was when we gave it.

Love is appropriate presence.
Presence can be obstrusive, invasive, intimidating or simply a nuisance. In a word, presence can be inappropriate. It can be something like showing up at a party without an invitation.
Love has myriad faces, revealed and hidden, expressed and unexpressed and it may be a mystery or appear seemingly in disguise. But it is always soul-centered and eternal. Love manifest itself in tears, a smile, laughter, screaming, shouting, speech or silence, what we endure as well as what we do, the empathy extended to others, communication, both verbal and nonverbal, communion with nature, the Cosmos and God, meditation and prayer, singing and music, intimacy and love-making, embracing, a look into another person's eyes that reveals not just his eyes but his heart, being a Mutuality Warrior, the person best prepared to live and experience meaning.
All these things a person can be and do - and more - lovingly when he is the embodiment of appropriate presence, no less than is true for the stars, moon and sun.
Love is synomnymous with and indistinguishable from appropriate presence. Even though appropriate presence is in the present it is the consciousness that what we are going to do is controlling and directing what we are doing now.
And others will know that we love, not merely by the good and right we do or the truth we cherish, as noble as these qualities are, but they will know that we love by our appropriate presence. There are times when good, right and truth fall short of our best and highest that we are called to embrace. The appropriate cannot be inadequate or less than the best or highest because it is directed by love. Love is sufficient unto itself. Real love is appropriate presence
If your presence is not appropriate don't show...don't show up. But be aware that hiding and withdrawing, especially as a way of life, are counter-productive and may hinder a person from claiming his God-given inheritance and prevent him from committing himself to keep the preeminent commandment: "to love one another."
To yourself be appropriate presence. This is a prerequisite for and underpinning of appropriate presence for total iliving.

Copyfight 2005 by Uriah J. Fields