Love arrives in many forms, waking us from the mundane to the magic: romance, friendships, familial, and communal. All kinds of love illuminate us to the aliveness of being in service to another.

In the words of Krista Tippett, “It is a virtue and a way of being we have scarcely begun to mine. People who have turned the world on its axis across history have called humanity to love.”

All the creatures on Earth are waking to life in search of love. The courtship rituals in both the human and more-than-human worlds are a declaration of this desire.

For the male and female seahorses, when they find each other, their colour brightens. Penguins come bearing gifts; they offer pebbles to their chosen mate. If this gift is accepted, they continue their search for pebbles and leaves and build a nest together. Albatrosses have created a dancing ritual, a bond for life. Every year, after flying vast distances, the pair returns to each other and greets the same dance. For every creature, there is a story of how they met their mate.

Our cultural embrace of romantic love arises from the same needs of growing and multiplying. Even in humans, we cannot fully grasp the depths of love. How can we then be sure that our animal kin lack such emotions?

Love also persists in the web of life, among different species nurturing each other. 

The flowers widen when they sense the pollinator approaching. Perhaps a way to be seen, to win the visit of the esteemed guest, is necessary for survival. If love is also about pleasing each other, in the world of wild imagination, could the flowers be in love with the bees?

The rhythm of many marine creatures is tied to the presence of the moon; they await its light for their procreation. Perhaps the creatures in the ocean long for the moon. Could this be the reason the waves are magnetically drawn to the moonlight?

Even if we are on the edge of a sinking world, it still turns on its axis, and like the rest of creation, we too keep falling in love. Being in love is human; searching for companions is also an innate instinct in nature.

What is love, and how can you know if you have been truly in love?

For each, this is a query of utmost importance.

But in all my years of witnessing all kinds of love, I know love has visited those who have risen after the falling was done.

Rising in love calls us to look beyond the dimension of romantic love and into the prism of life.

It comes with a preconditioned vow of finding one’s own truth, and even when this journey is difficult, we are called again and again to prepare for it. Each time, it leads to the alchemy of transformation.

I thought of love when I came across the principle of entropy. As if something is kept hidden within us, and to know it, we have to pay a price. 

Since chaos is easy to permeate, every matter in the universe needs to pay to transform into a more structured form. Entropy locks away the energy; even a bursting nebula and small cells are paying this tax to remain intact.

To finally liberate the dormant energy within us, perhaps we have to remember and accept the chaos we create.

Love brings order to the chaos of the human universe, for its force gives us the strength to seek redemption, even when it seems impossible. Because we know it’s always worth loving, because in the possibility of extending ourselves to others, we begin to ripen into our true selves.

To love the Earth, in spite of the climate crisis, requires courage. Because it’s easier to search for escape when things are falling apart, but if we escape, how will we transform? Is love the force that is moving the world on its axis? If we have to redeem ourselves, why should we not do it with joy? 

If you love someone today, a human being, a tree, a plant, a bird, or a sea, you are ready to rise and become of service, not just to yourself but to the world. We are collectively reaching to move beyond the chaos and into life, and your love is the force the world needs to transform.

So, shall we transform and rise in love?

Rise for yourself, 

Rise for the Earth, 

and 

Rise in love.

Words by Priyanka Singh Parihar,

Founder and Editor-in-Chief