“You are not here to love the world,
You are here to be love in the world.”

-- Grace Johnston

When you insist on seeing or loving others more fully than you do yourself, it is a tremendous strain. It means that your outer relationships must be lived in a way that you are not living inside. You must keep giving to others what you are not giving to yourself. If you are not loving yourself, it takes exhaustive energy to love others, and you must be vigilant at it. Because that love is based on effort rather than on natural emanation, you cannot stop trying to love for a moment or the loving will stop. But when you truly love yourself, love for others follows in a way that is continuous, natural, and effortless. Then your life is blessed, and your love is the blessing you share with the world.

~ Martia Nelson

Martia’s book, ‘Coming Home,’ has long been one of my most powerful and inspiring references. I highly recommend it!

“When I say that ‘I love,’ it is not I who love, but in reality Love who acts through me. Love is not so much something I do as something that I am.”

-- Robert A. Johnson