The Gravity of Love

Reflection: #37

Gravity causes objects made of matter to attract one another [1], but wouldn't it be interesting if a similar principle of "like attracts like" applied to other areas of reality?

What is it, for example, that causes other living beings to be attracted to us…and us to them? Why does the kitten rub on your leg, or snuggle up to your chest? Why does the dog in the street run up to you and want to lick your face while being pet…longing to know that he's a “good boy?” Why (beyond biology), is holding your spouse the best feeling in the world, not only physically, but spiritually? A feeling that has only deepened for me over the years in my own marriage. It seems self evident that the answer is love!

Love attracts us, life, to other living beings within whom we recognize the same quality. We recognize some spark in each other and that attracts us, like gravity to others who are also filled with love. They say "God is Love." But, what if that is taken literally?

If we're all pieces of God, pieces of Love, then what if there is a gravity-like force that draws that Love together, not necessarily a physical force, but perhaps a metaphysical one, a spiritual one? The kitten, or the dog, or your spouse senses that Love within you, and they are drawn to it…and you are drawn to them because of the God/Love within them. And so, you come together, pieces of spirit, attempting to rejoin into One Love, into the One God, the one underlying force that you really are, underneath this fleshy matter that binds us to this reality and gives us the illusion of separation. In a sense, perhaps you are “soul mates.” If this is so, the Gravity of Love draws us inexorably together, as long as we open ourselves to this powerful force.

The god, or Tao, or universe, or Force that powers everything, that powers life, that powers the living pieces of love that we are, provides a spiritual weight, a metaphysical gravity that attracts those of us who recognize it to one another. From the cat sleeping against my leg, to the puppy frantically jumping up, trying to lick your face, to my spouse whom I long to hold in my arms…all of us, tiny pieces of God, with our own unique personalities filtering that love into endless different beautiful expressions of it, coming together driven by the powerful universal force of love. And the conservation of (spiritual) energy would mean this filtered force…that we…are never destroyed, only transmuted to different forms.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Because it seems to me, that might be how reality actually is. Or, to be fair, maybe I've had just the right amount of wine, as I sit here listening to John Coltrane jazz, thinking about the universe, petting the cat whom is snuggled against my leg, and touching my wife’s feet with my own, and realizing, life doesn’t get much better than this very moment. But, it’s probably just the wine talking.

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Footnotes:

1. Yes, under relativity, the mass of an object actually warps the underlying spacetime of the universe to create the illusion that there is a “force” of gravity. But that doesn’t change our experience of this reality, so using the term as if Newtonian ideas of gravity are correct works for this reflection. Perhaps the Gravity of Love also warps some physical reality.

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