We can’t really know what love is until we pass it on. Whether it comes from a lover or from a friend or out from us toward a brother, love dies it’s shared. Love is within and flows from us. It pours through us but ceases its decant until we empty ourselves of it by pouring ourselves into yet other vessels. And along the way we take some for ourselves.

Deep down within ourselves, we are indistinguishable from love. Our intuitions, our innermost selves, are love. Some of us call this God, but it’s not necessary to give it that name. It’s impossible to define where it leaves off and where we begin. How can you tell the bud on a twig from the tree itself? Where does one end and the other begin? Is not the leaf a part of the tree? And as much as the leaf has its life in the tree, the tree would not be but for its many leaves which gather in the light by which the tree lives. God is simply the name some of us give to the tree. The budding leaf is the name we give to ourselves.

And so, anyone who claims to love God and to love others but hates themselves is lying. And to love God while hating your sister or your brother, even one among them, tells the same lie. We either nourish ourselves with the nutriment we receive through the branch and exchange it for the energy from the light we collect, or we fall off and shrivel in the light which, when we were connected to the tree, once nourished us. We either gather sunlight for the rest of the tree, taking a little for ourselves before we pass it on, or we crisp and die.

Love by its nature is shared and extended to all. It’s shared within through the act of our receiving. It’s shared without through giving, for the tree grows, and love is infinite expansion. We need to pass on the love we receive, and by giving, it multiplies. Unless we pass on what we receive, we die.

© 2022 by Michael C. Just

Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.

You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23

Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002

Four of his short stories have recently been published online:

Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)

The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW

I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October

Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within