LETTERS FROM LOVE — With Special Guest Susan Cain!
Quiet your mind, connect with your heart (and howler monkeys)
Happy new year, my beloveds! I hope the first week of 2024 has treated you well!
As you’ll see and hear in my video, I am having some very quiet, loud days in Costa Rica. I have been spending a lot of time outdoors, writing and communing with my heart and mind against a backdrop of monkeys, birds, insects, and wildlife of all kinds. You might not think the howling of monkeys is an ideal soundtrack for deep thought, but I am finding these sounds to be so joyful and peaceful. And I am finding myself to be both joyful and peaceful these days — in no small measure because of you.
We get a lot done in this community, a lot of excavating, healing, celebrating. This week a new subscriber named Emma shared with us how a force guided and calmed her through one of the darkest nights of her life, and when she began reading our letters, she recognized that force as the voice of Love.
And coincidentally, our very special guest this week, the one and only
— bestselling author, speaker, champion of introverts and the power of sad songs, and creator of the incredible Quiet Life community — recently described to me how astonished she was to discover that she is not alone in her own solitary practice of writing herself letters from a place of love. She had never heard of anyone else doing this! But here we are. Here we all are. And there’s no place I’d rather be!Dear Love, what would you have me know today about who you are?
My little howler monkey, my precious loud questioner — you always make things more complicated than they are. I am Love, and thus the story could not be simpler. I am not a mystery. I am not elusive. I do not hide from you. I do not try to frighten you. I do not say, “Look upon my mightiness and shudder in awe.”
You have asked me in the past if I am God, and I have told you, “I am contained within God, but I am not God. I am just Love.” After Rayya died, you asked me many times if I was Rayya, and I told you, “I am not Rayya, but Rayya is contained within me. I am just Love.” You have asked me if I am a spirit guide, if I am your ancestors, if I am Christ consciousness, or Mother Mary, or Kuan Yin, or Buddha nature, or if I am your own highest voice, or if I am some sort of cosmic social worker who was assigned to your case at birth to take care of you, or if I am an angel, or if I am a hallucination generated by your traumatized, fear-starved mind, or if I have a name, or if I have a face.
Little one, please keep it simple. Don’t mystify the simplest thing in the world.
My child, if there was another way to say it, I would say it, but it’s really quite straightforward. I am Love. I am just Love.
I am a force that is part of creation, a force that is a gift to the world, a never-ending presence. I come to you in the form of a voice because you need to hear me in the form of a voice, because you need to hear constant reassurance and gentleness in order to be settled — and because you cannot survive this life without me. But I am neither mysterious nor abstract, nor am I out of reach.
You don’t need psychedelics to find me. You don’t need a psychic medium to download my voice. You don’t need to face east and light candles and incense and chant for ten hours. You don’t need to cast spells or throw runes or look for me in a magic eight ball. All you need to do is ask the simple question: Dear Love, what would you have me know today? And I will tell you, as I always have. I will always tell you that I am Love, that I am with you, that I am right here.
Never not gonna be there, baby girl. Never not gonna be there.
And never not gonna love you.
And here is the beautiful thing — you don’t need anyone else’s love in order for my love to be present and available to you. Nobody ever had to love you perfectly or imperfectly for me to love you. I am right here no matter where anyone else is.
How many people now have you heard reporting exactly these same words, that Love has said to them I am right here? Nothing could be more true. I am right here. I am right here with you, and I am right here with anyone who needs me, who calls my name. The word “right” in this case not only indicating presence, but also correctness, accuracy. I am right here, and that is right. I am right here. It is true that I am here, it is as things should be.
My gentle suggestion, my skittish little kitty cat, is that perhaps you do not overthink me. For although you can hear me in your thoughts, I am not something your mind generated. I am not something your thoughts thought up, because I am not something your mind and your thoughts can actually fully understand. I am something your heart generated, in order to save you from your mind. I am an unending gift that asks for nothing in return. I am Love and I am right here.
Now go have a beautiful day. All is well. I love you.
Prompt
As always, you can use the simple question: Dear Love, what would you have me know today? as the spark to begin your letter. But if you would like to ask a special question this week, feel free to ask: Dear Love, can you tell me who or what you are? — and let’s see what arises. No pressure, though, dear ones. Remember that nothing is ever required of you here!
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