TO BE LOVED.
"I desire to attract love from the Infinite or somewhere,
that I may not be starved for it, as I have been
ever since I married. My husband sneers at the New
Thought, and in fact at nearly all that is best in me."
Caroline.
And yet this woman has children to love her. She thinks she is in need
of being loved; but what she really needs is _to love_. Being loved is
the _effect_ of loving. A loving man or woman can never want for love.
Others turn to them in love as naturally as flowers turn to the sun.
In order to be loved you must _radiate_ love. Instead of trying to
attract the love of others, seek to _give_ your love to others,
_expecting nothing in return_. After a time you will find the unexpected
coming to you spontaneously.
Learn to love by loving _all_ people and _things_, and especially all
things you find to do.
This same Caroline wants to "rise above drudgery." What _is_ drudgery?
_It is simply unloved work_--nothing more nor less. _Any_ work which is
looked down upon, and which is done with the hands _whilst the heart and
mind are criticizing it_, and running out after other things,--_any_
work thus done is drudgery. Work done with the hands _and a small and
unwilling part_ of the mind, is drudgery. To her who _respects_, and
_loves_, and does with a will what she finds to do, there is
no drudgery.
Let the woman who longs to be loved begin to _love_, by practicing on
her work. To quit calling it "drudgery"; to put _all_ her mind and will
and _soul_ into _each_ piece of work as it comes; is the first and
longest step toward loving it. It is an easily demonstrated fact that we
learn to love anything we persist in doing with a whole-souled will.
To love our work enlarges our capacity for loving people, and the more
we love people, _and the more people we love_, the more radiant
we become.
It is the radiant lover whom all the world loves. Do you know that love
and the lack of love are governed by "auto-suggestion"? It is _natural_
to love, as every child does. But as we grow up we keep saying to
ourselves (this is auto-suggestion, you know) that we "don't like this,"
and we "don't like that," until really we _shut up_ our love and live in
a continual state of "don't like"--a state which in due time develops
into _hate_--hate for self as well as others. "Don't like" does it all.
Now _cultivate_ love by auto-suggestion. Keep saying, "I _like_ this,"
and "I like that." _Hunt_ for things to like, and even tell yourself you
like things when you don't _feel_ that you like them at all.
Feeling is a _result_ of suggestion. Nothing easier to prove than that.
A hypnotist can, by suggestion, make you feel almost anything, whether
it is true or not. He will say, "You feel sad," and straightway you will
feel so. Then he will say, "You feel happy," and you do. Your feelings
are like a harp, and your _statements_, or auto-suggestions, are the
fingers which pick the strings. Take good care to play the tunes you
_want_--to say you _like_ things, or love them. Then you will quickly
respond and _feel_ that you like or love them. Keep _practicing_ until
you love _all_ the time. Then you will _be_ loved to your
heart's content.