Letter 10: Love, The Fundamental Force Behind Creation

“The most telling and profound way of describing the evolution of the universe would undoubtedly be to trace the evolution of love.” - Teilhard de Chardin

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Dear Future Human,

To love is to relate to the world with a sense of kinship.

In my previous letter on Nature, I explored how our disconnection from the natural world prevents us from fully appreciating the wisdom and profound interdependence of which we are inherently a part. In this letter, I aim to deepen this perspective by sharing insights into the elegant and astounding composition that we actively participate in.

As you may recall, I experienced the oneness of humanity at a very early age. This invisible connection—not apparent or acknowledged by people around me—led me to explore its source. I needed to understand: what is it that I am experiencing? Who else is experiencing this? And why doesn’t everyone experience it?

Living in these questions led me to develop a keener—deeper—sense of listening. As Rumi once said, I learned to “listen with a thousand ears.”¹ That meant I needed to listen with my whole body—my skin, my breath, my intuition. Between the words, the sounds, the movements, I discovered the subtle but unmistakable messages of connection. I found the source of our connection and the source of our disconnection. I discovered two major forces within us, each vying for its own agenda: the force to survive and the force to serve what I call the Evolutionary Creative Impulse.

You see, we are made of both matter—our physical body—and energy—our consciousness. Our physical body’s primary drive is to survive and procreate, fulfilling its role in the physical evolutionary process. Its focus is on the health and well-being of our physical self.

The fundamental drive of our consciousness, on the other hand, is to behold a greater perspective of life, one that transcends our immediate, physical experiences. It is not merely concerned with our physical survival, but serves to guide our lives through tapping into greater wisdom. It reveals to us how we fit into the greater scheme of evolution—of creation. Its primary purpose is to maintain the integrity of the Evolutionary Creative Impulse—the balance and harmony inherent in all universal creation.

It is our lack of awareness of this duality that creates the significant tension between our physical and creative impulses, leading to our inner conflict, tension within our families, and struggles within our communities.

I realized that these two forces needed to be integrated if we were to survive— respecting each for its own essential role.

Life became an unfolding journey of revelation, guided by a profound wisdom I could sense but could never fully grasp. Each experience and every encounter held within it a new lesson and different insight. The more I listened, the more I heard the universality of our experiences.

Nowhere was this more apparent than when I worked at the New York Visiting Nurse Psychiatric Mobile Crisis Unit. Our mission was to reach out to help individuals and families experiencing severe emotional and psychological distress. We covered the whole borough of Queens, working with people from all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. Since our services were funded by the Department of Mental Health, we had the luxury of providing our services for free.

The level of suffering I encountered remains unspeakable—from the pregnant young woman whose husband shot himself in front of her; to the elderly woman living in squalor, unable to pay for her medicines; to the parents trying desperately to help their schizophrenic child; to the children of the drug-addicted mom prostituting herself to get her next high; to the AIDS or cancer patient in hospice; to the parents whose five-year-old child died when a tree fell on his school bus; to the children who were trying to keep their Alzheimer’s father safe; to the families of the victims on Flight TWA800; to counseling the traumatized victims of the World Trade Center bombing—I felt it all.

Life is never as acute as when one is face-to-face with death. There is no posturing or pretending, only the undeniable rawness of the moment. People are not concerned with looking good, being right, or any of the other superficial desires that pervade our ordinary life. There is only one need: to live in love, free from suffering. Living in this heightened sense of what is genuinely real and important—with all its agony and tragedy—creates an environment of authentic relatedness between people.

It was in this context that I had the privilege to experience some of the most tender, open, and loving moments in my life. Every day, I experienced the power of intimacy that can exist between human beings when we are stripped down to our emotional nakedness. Humans from all walks of life let me into their innermost thoughts and feelings, revealing all that is within us. In the face of unimaginable challenges, I experienced their indefatigable spirit, which beckoned me to rise with them above the fray.

It became clear to me that it was my love for and deep understanding of humanity that was behind the drive to heal us. This drive to know us, to intimately know us, brought me closer to what it means to be human. I stepped into a kind of listening that is rarely present between people. I listened between the words: to the energy, the feelings, the wishes, and the doubts. My attentiveness revealed a familiar and universal hunger for being seen, known, and loved.

Between the words, I heard the pain, longing, and feelings of betrayal and distrust so many of us are experiencing in our daily lives. Becoming truly intimate attracts us to one another, pulling us into a dance of connection—where we are drawn to each other in a space of openness and vulnerability. Through this dance, we shape and transform each other. We learn to understand and embrace the natural rhythms of relationship, where we meet each other with vulnerability and trust. It is an invitation to know and to be known.

To love is to relate to the world with a sense of kinship.

The very same curiosity also led me to explore the trees, birds, flowers, and butterflies, applying the same attentiveness I brought to listening to the people I engaged with in my daily life. This, of course, required greater effort on my part, as I needed to create space and time to simply be in a state of observation and listening, rather than being engaged in some activity or task. I began watching nature shows, marveling at the complexity and elegance of Mother Nature. I listened to evolutionary biology and biomimicry podcasts, traveled deep into the Amazon region of Ecuador, and spent three weeks in the wilderness of Costa Rica, immersing myself in the vibrant cacophony and rich interconnected tapestry of the species around me.

Spending countless hours observing and listening to the birds unlocked a deeper level of attentive listening. In the split second of every movement—the slight tilt of their heads, the darting glances, their skipping—I could sense the micro and macro wonders alive in and around them. I could feel their guardedness and curiosity, the dynamic dance with each other—the vulnerability, competition, and drive for survival. Much of what I observed mirrored some of the dynamics that exist between us, revealing the subtle threads connecting us to them. I began to learn their song of life. Through being with—truly being with—the plants, insects, and many other species, something clicked for me. I was experiencing the same kind of love, the same intimacy, I experienced with people. I realized how becoming intimate with any and all species connects me to their essence, their purpose, and my interdependent relationship with them.

This is love! Love is the fundamental force behind the nature of creation—it permeates everything and serves as the driving force behind existence. It is the axis of all things, manifesting in infinite forms. Through intimacy—listening, learning about each other and the world around us—love emerges as the thread that binds all of life. Each element becomes part of the thread that weaves life into manifestation. When we connect deeply, our relationships—whether with each other or other species—enrich and shape our lives, increasing our vitality. This bond mirrors the creative impulse within us and all around us—a force that continuously seeks expression, growth, and transformation.

However, to truly experience love, we must first learn how to be attentive to its presence as it emanates all around us. When you attune to what is around you, you will discover that we are born into an elegantly designed, brilliantly composed organic interplay that invites us to move closer in wonder—to live in the questions. Humans, like other organisms, are part of its creative intelligence, and as such are wondrously informed by its elegance.

Like fish or mushrooms, our nature is part of a complex planetary ecosystem, governed by natural laws of evolution, interacting with and adapting to our environment. We are radiant souls who have come into this world to reveal and manifest our participation with the Evolutionary Creative Impulse.

Our journey is not just a personal evolution but a collective awakening—a movement towards deeper kinship, connection, and purpose. The birds are a part of me now—their color, their song, and their rapid movements are embedded in my heart. I will never listen to the natural world the same way I did before my deep connection with them.

The relationships that shape us become part of who we are. My family, my friends, my teachers, my home, my government, the food I eat, the air I breathe—all of these are part of who I have become and who I am not. This is what relationships are about—enduring bonds that transcend time and space. It is through this deepened relationship with others, with nature, and with our own souls that we remember our true nature.

Yet here we are, overlooking the profound richness around us. We rush through life, missing the quiet miracles that surround us.² The way a child laughs with abandon, the elegant design of an ant colony, the way a melody unexpectedly touches the soul. These are not mere background details while we narrowly move toward some achievement or goal; these are invitations to experience the fullness of life. We often act as if we are the only ones here, as if the world was built solely for our errands and obligations, blind to the breathtaking interconnectedness of life unfolding all around us.

But we are not the only ones here. And the world doesn’t exist for our errands and obligations.

There is more, so much more, to uncover.

This physical body is just as much a critical part of the Evolutionary Creative Impulse as is our consciousness. It is through this body that the creative impulse—love—can reveal itself. It is through our actions that we shape our environment, and it shapes us. The challenge before us is to harmonize these two forces. The body must survive in order to create in the physical environment, while consciousness must guide the body with its expanded creative vision to ensure it serves the greater good rather than merely fulfilling its own needs.

The conflict between them arises due to the body’s natural tendency to avoid discomfort and move toward the safety it has learned. When the creative impulse demands expression that challenges the survival impulse’s sense of physical safety, resistance is inevitable. Our survival mechanism, wired with a strong negativity bias, often misinterprets harmless situations as threats or mistakes the discomfort that comes with healthy growth as something to avoid.³ That is why we must become aware of the shortcomings of our limited perceptions and cognition. This is why it is essential for us to become intimate with ourselves—so that we can learn how to unite these two forces within us.

We live inside love, and we don’t feel, see, or immerse ourselves in it. We have tossed this abstract and elusive word around so often that we have no ability to recognize it when we encounter it. Yet if you pause for one moment to reflect, you may realize how much of your life is about seeking to experience love.

I didn’t discover what love is until I went seeking to understand people and the world around me. As long as I can remember, I felt the oneness of us all, but I didn’t understand its source. I needed to teach myself how to listen to life around me to discover the subtle and profound nourishment available to me when I come to the moment open and attentive. Viscerally immersing myself in each moment of life revealed to me the many forms of love, and how it is deeply intertwined with intimacy.

To love is to relate to the world with a sense of kinship.

Whenever I engage any person or situation from a perspective of I am in relationship with you, I naturally move closer—to learn and discover more, to become more intimate—so that I can truly know my kin and understand how best to relate to them. The more we learn about each other, our fears, our weaknesses, our gifts and our light, the safer we feel to reveal and discover more. The safer we feel, the more we reveal, and the more we reveal, the more we discover about ourselves and each other. Each authentic revelation brings with it gratitude, intimacy, and love. Real intimacy is not a taking—it is a giving, an offering that flows naturally from the heart.

We are being invited into a greater intimacy with life itself—to listen, to receive, to be changed by what we encounter. When we embrace this path, we do not simply speak about love; we embody it through experience. And in doing so, we remember what has always been true: that we are not separate, that love is not limited, and that the most profound relationships are the ones that shape us beyond recognition. I didn’t need to seek love; it was already within me, within every part of the fabric of life, waiting to be remembered, waiting to be embraced. The challenge we face is: are we willing to do what it takes to be vulnerable with them, to feel them, to let them transform us?

We are the change we seek. Let us move together—toward harmony, purpose, transformation, interdependence. We are here to discover that we are the continuation of life seeking itself.

Inside love,

Ronit

1. Jalal al-Din Rumi, Listening, translated by Coleman Barks, October 1999.

2. Thich Nat Hahn, A Life of Miracles, The Sun My Heart, retrieved July 2025.

3. Richard G Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun, Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Evidence, Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2004.

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