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Love is a Harmonizing Force
Lesson 1 of 3
Love is a word that gets thrown around a lot. I just love coffee, or cookies, or rainbows, etc.. I would love to go to Costa Rica! It is also used to verbally express our deepest feelings of attraction, affection, and care for someone, those we call our loved ones.
As a spiritual power, love goes far beyond feelings, attachments, or individual relationships. Love is a universal harmonizing and unifying principle. Our sense of oneness expands as we develop the power of love within ourselves.
"Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character that determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole.”
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The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm notes
We are living in a time when humanity’s way of being on our planet is causing serious harm to our planet. Collectively we are in a disharmonious relationship with Earth.
Efforts to protect the planet have often been framed in words and themes of war and attack – fighting climate change, the battle against Big Oil, the war against nature.
The real solution is love, both a personal love of and sense of connection to our planet and fellow species, and the principle of love as a harmonizing force.
Western culture bombards us with the message that humans are set apart from the rest of nature. The truth is that humans are a part of nature, and utterly interdependent on and with other species and a healthy planet.
"Love, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal unity. In expression, it is the power that joins and binds together the universe and everything in it. Love is a harmonizing, constructive power".
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Charles Fillmore, Keep a True Lent
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Have you ever stood in awe of a magnificent sunset?
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Do you delight in butterflies, hummingbirds, squirrels?
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Have you been driving down a highway and had your breath catch at the sight of a rainbow arcing across the sky?
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Do you see the divine in your dog or cat, fish, or hamster?
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Do your house plants help your home feel healthier, more homey, healthful and alive?
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If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re in good company. Attraction to nature is a nearly universal human experience. So much so, that there is a term to describe it – biophilia.
Biophilia
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Biophilia was first used in 1973 by German-born American psychoanalyst  Erich Fromm in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness. Fromm described biophilia as “the passionate love of life and of all that is alive.”
The term was later used by American biologist Edward O. Wilson in his work Biophilia, which proposed that the tendency of humans to focus on and affiliate with nature and other life-forms is, in part, genetically-driven.
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It is a natural part of human nature to be in love with all of nature. And this may be our greatest superpower in protecting and restoring our planet. As Unity minister Kathy Harwood Long notes, “[L]ove is the great motivator for action, and the necessary ingredient to bring people of opposing views into a common understanding of interdependence. We are learning that Divine Love does not guide one view, for one person, one species, separate from all else, any more than the Sun guides one ray of light to only one human.” As spiritual principle, love is a unifying force; it helps us remember our connection to and concern for fellow beings, human and non-human alike.  
"The love current is not a projection of the will. It is a setting free of a natural, equalizing, harmonizing force that in most persons has been dammed up by human limitations. … Love is more than mere affection, and all our words protesting our love are not of value unless we have this inner current, which is real substance".
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Charles Fillmore, Dynamics for Living
Nature beautifully demonstrates love’s harmonizing effect. In western culture we are told that life is about competition, and “survival of the fittest,” but nature reveals that it is actually much more about cooperation and reciprocity. A beautiful example of this is the Fender’s Blue butterfly. This beautiful little butterfly was believed to be extinct, but when a few remaining butterflies were found in the region in Oregon which is the only place the species exists, a conservation effort was put in place and now the Fender’s Blue population is growing. The Fender’s Blue caterpillar is very small and vulnerable and the species has developed an ingenious protection strategy.
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When the little worm feels threatened it secretes a specially scented pheromone or jerks its body in a certain way that emits a high-pitched noise – these are distress signals. When that happens, several different species of ants react and rush to the caterpillar and set up a defensive circle. The caterpillar pays back this protection by secreting drops of a sweet nectar substance that the ants eat.
The harmonizing power of Love enables us to cooperate, and to forgive. This is a useful power as we sit in the paradox of loving nature and staying above attack thoughts or words toward those who are harming it.
That is how we embody Jesus’ teaching to be in the world but not of it. We can overturn money changers' tables, and speak the truth about unacceptable behaviors and policies without personally attacking the ones behind those tables.
Love is essential to sacred activism and healing the discord and disharmony in our world.
"My secret power is actually a practice. I tell myself every morning that I'm on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. So when things go wacky, I actually feel thankful that I'm experiencing something new."
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Leo Tolstoy: My Reply to the Synod’s Edict of Excommunication
It’s only natural to love this home that is such a glorious demonstration of Creation. The earth is holy and every life that calls her home is holy. Each time we feel awe toward the vast expanse of ocean, or the fire expressed in a sunset, or the miracle of a spider in its web, we are sending out a prayer of gratitude and love.