On poly love

[likethewatch]

I'm reading this article by the estimable Charlie Glickman, Opening to Love with an open heart. I know this is one I'll want to come back to, and I lose links I post to Facebook. This is my thinking place. He borrows a definition of love---“the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.”---that has a long pedigree and includes in it the idea of self-love. Just when I was thinking how remarkable that was, he continued to surprise me with the many things he knows about love. Not only is self-love necessary to loving others, but also vice versa, says Glickman. There are the nouns of love, borrowed from Stephen Levine's book, Demystifying Love. Love requires room to grow, and is antithetical to control and its extreme, abuse. He talks of honoring love, especially when our fears prevent us from believing that love can exist where it does, including among more than two people.

There's much more and I don't do him justice. I want to go back and read this some more. Thanks to Nellie for finding this; she turned me on to an article on forgiveness before we even met in person. I'm grateful to have made this thoughtful friend.