Fathoms of Love Beyond Fear

When I hear the song by Peter Gabriel, Love Can Heal, I cascade into a glowing mellifluous sensation of lingering pain and deep love. The pain shifts, through the notes and lyrics of the song, to acceptance and love. The first verse of the song presents the experience of our lives as turmoil, meeting us where we are in that moment. It states,

“Whatever mess, you find yourself within,

Regardless how you got there.

When the edifice has slipped away and died

And left you standing there defenseless”

From these words, I am reminded of how fear can destroy me. I wallow in it, as it expresses itself as impatience, irritation, procrastination, anger, hate, depression, or anxiety. I struggle through it, and I burrow from out of its catacomb, as I reach for the fresh air of love. The song moves me from a sense of destruction and disease to the reminder:

“Love can heal love can heal

Love can heal love can heal”

In the lyrics, and the soft beauty of the notes, I recognize how fear has sifted me through life, as I struggle to survive, and I can feel the love within me, which exists as me, flowing from me. I feel this, and I sense the conflict within me, as phrased eloquently within the lyrics:

“There's something coming out of you,

Your body and your skin,

Like mist comes from the water.

You can sense it

When the cold has clenched it's cords

And, alone, you face what's coming.

For a moment, I raise my head.

I can breathe the air.

Out in the sunlight, in all the colors

Set against, a bed of green... a bed of green”

The song conveys the internal assault, yet it points to what love truly is. From the examples of love and fear, I have come to know both, intimately. Love is juxtaposed against fear in a never ending tug of war. This battle is ongoing and will likely exist for as long as I possess an amygdala, which is the biological seat of fear.

Fear is a natural instinct and yet it is the ultimate lesson. It is a duality in our perception, and yet it is not that love cannot exist separate from fear, it is that fear teaches us what love is by showing us what it is not. My entire life has been learning what love is and how fear plays a part in our lives as it opposes itself to love. It has been a choice between the two, as I bravely face that which I fear and work to always choose love.

Outside of fear, love always exists, whether we do or not. And because love exists, irregardless of us, and is its own being, it lives within the realms of spirit and energy. Universal life force energy, or Light, is the same exact substance as that of Love. It is the same energy. There is no distinction within Spirit. The only distinction is within the form of mind that defines everything it sees, as if to make sense of a world that often feels chaotic. When I choose to love, I choose spirit. When I choose to fear, I choose form.

Love, indeed, can heal. I know that the purest definition of love is that which is unconditional. It loves regardless of the object of love. It loves despite the strengths and weaknesses of a being and it gives love unceasingly. I have learned that absolute and unconditional love can truly heal, but that love must first be given to ourselves, and then it may swell beyond us to reach the lives of those that we may touch, whether it is a simple smile in passing, or sitting with someone while we help talk them down from the ledge.

To learn to love unconditionally, we must learn to love ourselves fully. We may do this by bravely facing ourselves, knowing ourselves, learning our shadows, accepting them as part of our experience and forgiving ourselves for the things that we may have done, or that were done to us, that are seen as low and base. The mind, which is fear driven, sees these things within the context of morality, but Spirit, which is love driven, sees them as vehicles of growth and enlightenment. There is nothing within form that is bad, and nothing that is good. It simply is.

Love, within form, is limited, and we limit ourselves when we choose to love within form. I have learned that love is something that exists within me and when I love from outside of myself, it is myself that I love. When I see an object of love, that love expands from out of me and encompasses it. Recognizing this, I am able to give myself love regardless of whether there are examples of love or fear around me. I am able to accept myself as I am and flow through life in a healed state.

I am still on a path of healing, and yet I have processed and healed a lot of my past. As I face the old triggers of the wounds, I peel back new layers, and I find more strength, and more love. “Love Can Heal” is a song that exhibits the battle within, but demonstrates that we may stand tall, because we exist as Love.

Love can heal.