“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
-Martin Luther King Jr.


It's Valentines Day! How about we transform a Hallmark occasion into an opportunity to celebrate True Love. The kind of love those icons on the ipeace poster are talking about - Gandhi, The Dalai Lama, John Lennon, Martin Luther King Jr. They knew a thing or two about what true love really is.

For starters, it ain't easy. It's not about just loving the people in your immediate circle - the ones that agree with you, the ones that look like you, the ones that turn you on. That's a good thing, and hard enough in itself. But the kind of love these peaceful warriors understood, in the depths of their hearts, comes from recognizing that we are all truly, utterly and compeltely, interconnected. This is the kind of love that enables us to actually love our enemies.

Have you ever really tried it? Not just tolerate our enemies, but actually love them. Phew - it's tough! That's fierce love. That's industrial strength love. That's the love that's going to change the planet. Martin Luther King Jr. used to joke sometimes, "we've just got to love the hell out them. You just love them..." This isn't a simple, sanctimonious holier than thou love - no, this is the kind of love that loves right through the ego, the hatred, the misunderstanding, right through to the divine spark that flames inside each and every being on this planet. This love does not excuse them for their actions, does not excuse them for the pain they cause, but recognizes that they are inflicting pain, because they are in pain.

A strange thing happens when violence is met with love. It doesn't know what to do. It knows how to respond to violence - now you're talking, now you're speaking it's language. It's a common practice for police to infiltrate peaceful activists to start them on a violent course of action - inside agitators. Because this allows the forces that be to be justified in an even more violent response. But if we are committed, deeply committed, to non-violence, to love in action, the perpetrators of violence will one day run out of anger.

Yes, it seems impossible in some of these large, seemingly endless conflicts - like the one in the middle east - to hold true to the path of non-violence. But I believe there is no other way. There will be huge costs to be paid, in the standing up for peace, in the standing up for love, as there has been throughout history. In the civil rights movement, many people died, but still, they refused to respond with anything other than love. And eventually, that love, and action - direct action - triumphed.

Ah love. If only we could truly learn to love. If only every breath, every gesture could resonate with love. For some people it's just natural. For others, especially us men, we need to learn. Society in the west has ingrained in us the ethos of "every man for himself." But when you learn, from the inside out, that everyone is yourself, you will discover a huge shift takes place. When we learn the truth of inter-being, when we learn True Love, look out world! Cause here we come - the love warriors of a new millenium.

We can do it - we're here to do it. Nothing could be more rewarding. When we move through the world with our love light shining, the world beams it right back up. And heart by heart, light by light, we can illuminate this world of shadows and terror. We can transform it, from the inside out.

Happy Valentines Day! May peace reign in our hearts, and on this planet.

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Comment by Garry Driehuizen on February 15, 2009 at 6:37pm

Love thy enemy, so easely said but how difficult to do! In a world with so much hatred it is almost impossible. Eventhough, I am a positive person I will keep on trying! Love and light Garry
Comment by Marica on February 15, 2009 at 4:39pm
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Comment by Joy Harmon on February 15, 2009 at 4:28pm
YES! I see that we are all holding hands around the world and feeling Peace with each other. There is great power in that connection. It will suck others in. The "Ring around Jerusalem" has spread and spread and spread. BE THE LIGHT. It's sooooooo contagious. Thanks to all for sharing their words/pictures/poems/stories/SELVES with all of us.........
Whew! I realize that I am NOT a majority of ONE, but a community of ONENESS. Don't let go! You are so needed.......
Comment by mike Hamer on February 15, 2009 at 4:06pm
Thank you for your insightful and loving Valentine's Day thoughts.
Comment by David Gould on February 15, 2009 at 4:05pm
Love and Hate

It is all very simple when you think
the difference between love and hate,
because hate can only destroy us
whereas love always creates anew
hate divides us into friend or foe
but love joins us up into groups
hate starts by destroying the inside
before moving to destroy everything,
but we were not born to hate others
as we were all created in acts of love
that is why I find it impossible to hate
but extremely easy to find love here.

I was born to love, not born to hate
when I see which does what here
I know which one I choose every time

David Gould © 2nd February 2009
Comment by Phylis on February 15, 2009 at 3:55pm
i ENJOYED YOUR STORY, AND ALL OF the other COMMENTS.
EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING I CAN LEARN FROM,,,
THANK YOU, AND KEEP THE LOVE MOVING!!
PEACE,
Phylis
Comment by Ziona Etzion on February 15, 2009 at 2:58pm
Your writing moves one. Thank you for showing your caring and be willing to share .
Comment by csaporittis@hotmail.com on February 15, 2009 at 2:26pm

Realmente no existe otro camino, amor y paz para y por el mundo.Cuando cada uno de nosotros lo vivencia, siente el dolor de no ser comprendido, solo el amor puede traer la paz tan ansiada, amor por tu projimo, tu compatriota, tu enemigo, tu discipulo, tu maestro, tu padre, tu madre, tus hijos, etc., si a todos amamos, el odio no tendra lugar, es tan simple, ser positivo en amor., por nosotros, nuestros hijos, por el mundo. BEAUTIFUULLY WRITTEN.,THANK YOU.
Comment by Jane Young on February 15, 2009 at 1:23pm
Beautifully written - thank you so much for putting the case for Love so clearly.
Abundant blessings
Jane :)
Comment by sandy bocko on February 15, 2009 at 1:00pm
Thank YOU !
Beautifully written, you are ,thoughtful and wise,and an excellent writer...
we are here to learn Love, in it's highest form..unconditional !
we Are all connected being's...
Peace & Love,
sandy

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