Why Can't We Love?

My heart is burdened of late. There is a serious lack of love in this country.

Oh we talk a good game. We talk about unconditional love, Christian love, and forever love.

It sounds so simplistic doesn’t it?  Just love one another. But I am starting to think that humans are incapable. I am never more able to love than when I am alone in my quietness or watching nature as the clouds blow across a fall sky. It is so easy to love at that human-less moment.

Then the contact happens. Or media reminds us of our differences. Or we remember how that person lied to us and how we still have lingering anger. Or we remember how a partner hurt us when they promised to love us forever. Then love seems like a chasm, a canyon of difference, a mountain of impossibility.

The truth is we don’t really want to love. We say we do but I am not sure we believe ourselves. We resist it because it hurts. We shy away from it because it leads to pain as we consider all we have to lose. We are skeptical that this love experiment will ever work. Love is not a magic potion. It does not solve all problems. It is free but sometimes it costs us everything.

Love is light years away and shines like a distance star. We keep moving toward it but it seems like it is out of reach. We must march on. We must follow its light. We can never love enough, but every minute we partake in its goodness is time well spent.

Maybe there is not enough love in the world. Maybe there never will be. Start with yourself and prove to the world that love is not just words or emotions or selfishness, but it is as important as the blood coursing through our veins.

Prove that it is within our grasp. Prove that it is not a myth. Prove that it is worth the risk.

Like infants, like small children we reach out our feeble hand to touch it. We may draw back because it burns, but we do not give up. The reward is too great.