Love is an opening into eternity, divine mystery

In today's post, "People who need people" on her blog Namaste, Bitches, Holly Westergren refers to Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul in her discussion of love. Westergren opens by sharing:

"There is only one man on earth who I believe I have truly loved and still love in the way people love people in movies. I also believe he loved me back, as best he knew how, though how can anyone really be sure of these things? But, the farther away I get from that love, the more I see how real it was, or maybe that's the illusion, who knows. He's a Pisces, too. A water sign. I swear, Pisces men might be the death of me yet. I've got not a single drop of water in my astrological chart, you see. It is entirely possible that I should just drink more water instead of pining for Pisces men. But, as Thomas Moore consoles in his beautiful gift to the world, Care of the Soul, "The soul apparently needs amorous sadness"."

In her talk of love, she continues,

"This man I loved and still love and always will love once said to me, "Nobody needs each other anymore." It's a sad state of affairs if this current is truly running rampant through our collective consciousness. I know what he meant, though. As a culture, we are afraid to need each other. Perhaps we are afraid to need altogether. Especially those of us who have been conditioned to be fearlessly independent, hard-working, successful and accomplished, in a culture that defines those things materially."

Westergren observes,

"I think roles between men and women are terribly warped in our culture. Women are afraid to need. Men are afraid to be needed. Both fears stem from the same place: a discomfort with vulnerability. Somehow needing each other has become a weakness, an admission that you can't figure things out for yourself, that you're helpless and lost, a feeling that so many of us have been programmed to avoid at all costs."

She quotes Moore's "prescription for those who are searching for love but can't seem to invite it in."