Tag Archives: life as a journey

Chuck’s Place: Stepping Up The Infinite Ladder Of Love

Plant your love wherever you go…
-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

I, like all of us, have been challenged in this life to ascend another rung on the infinite ladder of love. I call that ladder infinite because love forever broadens as it rises to embrace the infinitude of all.

The challenge of reopening to love, once you’ve experienced love, as we all have, regardless of its level of fulfillment, is to grow that love forward. Love can only build upon the plateau of love you have already accrued.

We accrue love in many of our relationships in life, be they with humans, animals or trees. Letting go of a physical relationship can never erase the fact of that love, regardless of its ending in the materiality of this plane of life.

If you are to love again, you must include all the love you have ever experienced as the foundation for new love. However, that growing love must be separated from attachment to the nostalgic familiarity of forms and habits already lived. Love cannot grow if it remains tethered to a past life. And yes, one can have many lives in one physical life.

A sense of undying loyalty to a relationship that has physically ended binds love’s evolution and hinders maturity into new life. Successful mourning ultimately frees everyone to continue their journey into new possibilities. Allowing oneself to be vulnerable in a new encounter, while knowing through experience the disappointments of failures or missed opportunities in love, is a major growth point.

Jeanne and I had a contract in our earthly marriage that insisted we never impede each other’s growth. As our wedding song honestly stated, “our love will grow for all we know.” Vows simply do not guarantee that love will grow. If it’s not right, love insists you set each other free. It’s the truly loving thing to do.

We launched that contract to new levels when Jeanne left this world. She has since been an impeccable warrior; and she has almost completely refused to grant me a moment of familiar connection to our once-treasured earthly existence.

Our love grows now on the premise that we independently assume total  responsibility for our lives and exercise total freedom in the different planes of existence that we currently reside upon. For Jeanne, that is life in the formless plane; for myself, it remains the continued life in physical form.

Of course, I must admit that Jeanne is a magical trickster, whose maneuvers upon the earthly plane have offered me enormous growth opportunities. But these gifts always come with the insistence that I assume total responsibility for the decision to live and realize the possibility in the seed of the offering. Our loved ones in infinity often challenge us to evolve in ways we’d prefer to avoid.

Jeanne was instrumental to the possibility that I might grow love forward in my relationship with Jan. To achieve this, I needed to fully embrace the love I’d accrued with Jeanne but then totally take it into new frontiers with Jan, completely detached from Jeanne in a personal sense. Yet that growing love is fully given to all, as we mature into beings who love with equanimity.

Jeanne, Jan and I are fully aware that we are part of the same soul group, whose goal—similar to the goals of all soul groups—is for all its members to fully master their individual challenges so that their group, as a whole, can ascend the infinite ladder of love.

Ultimately, there is only one soul group, the soul group of infinite Oneness. Ultimately, all soul groups will merge into that Oneness. An analogy would be the human body, which consists of countless soul groups, such as the soul groups of the liver, the heart, the kidneys, etc. All these distinct organ soul groups ultimately merge into the oneness of a human body.

I would venture to assert that all lives that currently reside upon this Earth plane are members of the same soul group. Yes, I concede that within that group are smaller more intimately connected groups, but we are all extant at this time to both challenge and support each other to advance the Earth dream we all reside in, to rise another rung on the infinite ladder of love. Clearly, to love is the only way to keep that dream alive.

Each of us have the opportunity to ascend the infinite ladder of love in this life. It begins with releasing attachment to the past life of our family  of origin. While cherishing its memory and foundation in love, we allow all the members of our nuclear soul group family to shed their previous forms, as they grow their individual lives forward, whether it be upon a plane of form or a plane of formlessness.

Perhaps most significantly, we must allow our evolving selves to molt, to shed the skins of completed life, in the form of attachment to old ideas of self, and to be fully present to new possibility, as we bring life and love to the unlived sides of our soul’s potential.

To love the many lives of self through the developmental stages of this life, as well as all the people with whom we’ve shared those lives, while at the same time releasing all to their new lives, is the foundation to build new love upon, as we take another step upon the infinite ladder of love.

Love is all around you,
Come on and let it grow,

Chuck

Soulbyte for Monday September 25, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

You might find yourself wondering how you got where you are today. It’s one thing to wake up one day and discover that life has passed you by but it’s another thing to take full responsibility for the fact that you were never fully present enough in life to catch all of its important moments. Sometimes things get missed, but there is always an opportunity to wake up and grab each moment’s experience in full consciousness, to have life at its best, and to fully have the human experience. It’s never too late.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Thursday September 14, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Do better. On behalf of yourself do better. Make decisions that are aimed at maintaining your energy levels at peak performance. Utilize your knowledge to attain the best self in all ways, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. You are in charge. There is no one to blame. Find your balance, that sweet spot, and stay there by doing everything that needs to be done so that you remain there. You will know what that balance is when you get there, by how you feel, and by trial and error you will discover how to remain there. Good luck!

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Friday September 8, 2023

-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

Rather than compromise seek the highest, most valuable state; that of high heart, high spirit and high truth. Life will not go well if you compromise these values and settle for the mundane. Your spirit will continually remind you that you have failed to live up to your fullest potential. Ask for guidance and protection as you navigate the pathways of your life. Ask for help as you make choices that are meaningful and full of purpose, as you make the big decisions that will bring you to peace, happiness and fulfillment.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne