What If We Are the Beloved?

This is a follow-up to the post.

I remember reading something Marianne Williamson wrote that love is love and that romantic love has no greater value. It didn't resonate. I didn't understand it. I didn't buy it. How can all love relationships be of equal measure when historically I have found myself getting over the top thrilled when a new romance begins? How is it that when so many of us get involved in a new romance that we stop showing as much interest in our friendships, considering them as secondary importance?

Could it be that all these behaviors are learned based on what our culture has taught us? Have we been taught to allow ourselves to love in full capacity only in romance? Can what our culture has taught us be unlearned, and what would that look like? Is it possible to see the whole world as our Beloved--every bit of it? And if so, then is it possible when one finds oneself as romantically attached or married to not fall completely apart when it falls apart? And also, then too--not to feel that achy desperation to find someone new? What a freedom that would be to live that way.

What if everything we see is our Beloved hiding behind form--nature, people, animals, etc.? What if those forms are merely a reflection of the Beloved we are?

I am reminded of this possibility with small children. Lately, without me doing anything but look at them, small children light up and smile at me as if I was their favorite sweet. It's something very new and always surprising. Do they see the Beloved in me? What is it they see? And am I reflecting the Beloved they are back to them. I think so. I hope so.