It is often a surprise, a pleasant one, to hear in the youth of today the word "love' and not in a glib overlly marketed manifestation. It is warming and uplifting to hear and read of one willing to subject their insight into such an important process/goal and to come out with something useful and practical. In the end, love is as the Christ said, "God'-and then one must be able to delve into what that means. William Coffin in one of his sermons said that "God through the Bible had many suggestions on how to live but only one law, and that is the mandate to Love and all that, that requires." I find this to be beautiful. In my own tradition they say that Love and Compassion are the two requisites needed for the path of the enlightened and they are defined as, "may the Other have every happiness, may the Other be free from every harm." Now if we put that with the term that the Christ demanded on the mount I think we have the requisite knowlege to understand the path, and the understanding of the awesome responsibility taken on by one who would brave Love. I must say though that selfless desire is not one that is cowardly and the extinguishing of self, on the contrary, it takes an enormous amount of confidence and self awareness to attempt the selfless path-as well as a hero's Lion Heart (I say this because many think the wimpy, door mat is what I am getting at when describing the selfless ideal but it is not-it must be undertaken with courage). That is what you are doing, I think, when you love your loved one's-I imagine it poking holes in the black blanket of ignorance the is between us and the Great Luminosity-so each love is like a star in the midnight sky-and perhaps with lifetimes of effort and awareness we can remove the viel and it all will be an ocean of Love. Be well. G