About thirty years ago, I was terribly ill with tonsillitis. I remember wandering home through the streets of Sydney, Australia, completely exhausted and depleted, when I came across a sign for the Glebe Healing Centre.
Something drew me inside.
A woman greeted me, took one look at me and wrapped her arms around me in a warm embrace. She gently ushered me towards a healing table, inviting me to lie down and rest.
She worked on me for perhaps an hour and a half, maybe even two, charging only her usual flat rate, something I deeply appreciated at the time. Afterwards, she encouraged me to go home and rest.
When I awoke the following morning, I felt completely healed. I was amazed! I returned to the center to express my gratitude for her kindness and what felt to me like a miracle.
I didn’t really understand what had happened, but I never forgot that experience of Reiki.
About five years later, now living in another part of Australia, I felt drawn to receive Reiki again. I began searching for a practitioner and eventually spoke with a woman over the telephone about booking a session.
During our conversation, she explained that the foundation of her Reiki philosophy was LOVE.
My reaction was immediate and visceral.
I felt physically nauseated.
I ended the conversation without making an appointment.
Over the years, I often reflected on that response. Why had the mere mention of love stirred such a strong reaction within me? I would occasionally research the subject, ask questions and try to make sense of it.
Then one day, while listening to a radio program, I heard someone speak about love as a choice.
It was a light-bulb moment.
Although the conversation was centered around romantic relationships and marriage, something about the idea that we could choose love stayed with me.
Fast-forward another twenty years, and here I am, looking at love through an entirely different lens.
Today, I believe we are multidimensional beings, expressions of Divine Source, and that at the very essence of our being resides pure Love, joy and bliss.
And perhaps one of the greatest aspects of our human journey is remembering that we have the capacity to consciously reconnect with this love in any given moment.
Of course, sometimes that is much easier said than done! For me, it remains a lifelong practice.
We live in a world where love has so often been shaped and distorted by societal and familial conditioning. From an early age, many of us learn to compare ourselves with others, judge our perceived shortcomings and seek validation outside ourselves.
We can become so accustomed to self-criticism and placing the needs of others before our own that genuine self-love can feel foreign, uncomfortable, undeserved or even self-indulgent.
I recognize this conditioning within myself.
There have been times when I have felt uncomfortable around people, particularly women, who seemed to radiate confidence and self-love. Women who honoured their boundaries, prioritised their wellbeing and stood comfortably in their own truth.
Looking back, I can see how much of that discomfort was connected to my own conditioning and the relationship I had with myself.
And this is where the journey of remembering becomes so profound.
Because love, as I understand it today, is not simply an emotion we experience in relation to another person. It is an expression of our true nature, something that already exists within us, beneath the layers of conditioning, judgment and separation.
I am still learning. Still shedding old patterns, questioning beliefs and practicing the conscious choice to return to Love.
But these days, I find myself immersed in that frequency more often than not.
And I have come to experience something beautiful: the more deeply I nurture love for myself, the more naturally that love extends outward.
In honoring the divinity that resides within me, I find myself recognizing that same divinity in others — in humanity, in Mother Earth, in the animals, the trees and the extraordinary web of life to which we all belong.
For me, Love is not simply an aspect of our existence. It is the very essence of creation itself.
And perhaps our journey is not about learning how to love, but remembering that we are Love.