The point of relationship is the added power that life gets in working with it as a channel.  If two people are strong together, then life has a more powerful channel than it has with two single people.  Life doesn’t care about your relationship.  It is looking for channels for its power so it can function maximally.
- Everyday Zen by Charlotte Joko Beck

Of all of the positive energies in the universe, love has to be the most powerful and profound. Of everything I’m learning now, at the age of 67, the value of love is number one. Love in its broadest sense. Love of wild nature, of walking in the woods, love of one’s best friend, despite all their screwups and foibles. Love of the food you cook for friends you care about. And love of your work.

The reason we don’t love more must be that it is risky. It makes us vulnerable. It’s not the easy path in a state of perpetual bliss. Lots of things can go wrong. We can, for instance, go broke. There’s a whole society and culture built around the tradeoff – give us your freedom and we’ll give you security. Stability. An absence of worry. That’s a huge tradeoff.  The other tradeoof is to embrace risk in the pursuit of love. That's where the rewards in life are.

Ultimately, the goal is to live in harmony with your inner world. That’s more a journey than a destination. But the surest way to get from here to there is to build your life around people and work and places you love. And dogs too.

As far as work goes, doing work you love depends first of all on knowing yourself. Not easy. Journaling can be an important tool in that process. Finding work you love is largely about finding channels for energy where your energy serves some other energy, and together the combination totals more than the energy input. In other words, find channels where your energy can grow, ideally exponentially.  Find work that puts the “spring of ambrosia” into your step. And pour your heart into it.

Work of love is sacred, as is all love. And everything that is sacred requires sacrifice. Doing work of love risks rejection. In fact, when you embark on the journey, count on rejection. Your love has to be greater than your discouragement at the constant rejection typical of the early stages of unique work. Another risk – the discouragement caused by those who will attempt to take advantage of you, steal your money, your time. The people exorcising their own personal demons. You will encounter them.

But ultimately, work of love leads to harmony with oneself. And that makes it worth it. It’s that simple. Love, when focused on channels where its energy multiplies, is worth the cost, worth the sacrifice.

By the way, have you noticed that when mathematicians and physicists pick up a piece of chalk and begin scribbling on a blackboard, everything they write is centered around an equal sign? That equal sign is the sign of harmony. Harmony is what we are all searching for. Or should be.

More thoughts on follow your bliss, some of them contrary, here.