christianity

Podcast Episode #2: Exploring Love Beyond Attraction

I just discovered this new feature of WordPress. AI creates podcasts from posts created by the blogger. This is getting creepy. What do you think?

Two days later I tried to use this feature for another blog and found out that feature is not available. Now AI Asst. says they cannot generate audio files. I don’t know what I stumbled upon, but WP must have found the glitch and plugged it. It was nice while it lasted

Pip: There’s a certain kind of insomnia that doesn’t waste itself on worry — it goes straight for the big questions. TomT 2.0 had one of those nights.

Mara: And what came out of it is a genuinely personal inquiry into love — what it is, where it comes from, and whether physical attraction is even required for it to be real.

Pip: Let’s start with what that sleepless ceiling-staring actually produced.

Exploring Love Beyond Attraction

Mara: The post opens with a question that sounds simple until you actually sit with it: what is love, and do you really agree with the definition you’ve been carrying around?

Pip: And the answer, it turns out, is that most of us inherited our definition without ever signing off on it — from family, culture, relationships we stumbled through.

Mara: The post puts it directly: “I find myself questioning whether love is a feeling, a choice, a commitment, or some shifting combination of all three, and whether the way I give and receive love truly reflects what I believe it should be.”

Pip: That last clause is the one that lands. Not just what love is in the abstract, but whether you’re actually living in alignment with your own answer.

Mara: The post gets more personal from there. There’s a passage about growing up in a household where love was never spoken aloud — where food on the table and rides to school were supposed to carry the full weight of the word.

Pip: Which they can. But there’s a difference between love being assumed and love being felt, and that gap is apparently still present decades later.

Mara: Right — the post names it plainly: the silence left closeness feeling “uncertain and conditional, as if I had to keep guessing whether I was truly loved or just responsibly cared for.”

Pip: That’s not a small thing to sit with at three in the morning.

Mara: The post then pushes into what may be its central question: can love exist fully without physical attraction at all? Whether emotional intimacy — being truly seen, trust built slowly, small daily acts of care — can constitute love on its own terms.

Pip: The honest answer seems to be: probably yes, but we’ve been trained to treat attraction as the admission ticket, so the question feels stranger than it should.

Mara: And the post doesn’t resolve it. It frames this as an ongoing exploration — one that may grow into a longer project, even a book.

Pip: So the sleepless night was just the opening chapter.


Mara: What stays with me is the question about alignment — not just defining love, but asking whether you’re actually living by your own definition.

Pip: More questions than answers, but apparently that’s where the worthwhile ones start. We’ll be back when the next chapter arrives.

Me and Spirituality

First a little history about me. I was born and raised a Catholic. My mother was a devout Catholic and Grandma, her mother was also. Grandma lived with us until I was fifteen when she passed away. My dad was raised a Baptist but did not practice any religion. Anyway, I was started out as a catholic.

I went through all the things a young person did growing up as a prospective Catholic. I went to catechism every Sunday after service. Listened to my mother and grandma about the Catholic religion. I was baptized, did first confession and first communion. Finally, confirmation, to become a soldier of Christ. During that time, I ended up with the impression that it was very difficult to become worthy of entering heaven. After your death God was there with his big tablet and you had to account for every sin you committed during your time on earth. I cannot ever remember being told that God loves you unconditionally. During this time the church used fear of eternal suffering in hell to be a good human. Being just human was a sin.

I went through most of my life as a Catholic. Trying to earn my way into eternal life with God. During this journey I had some spiritual events. First, when my grandmother was on her deathbed, she did not have time for us. She said that there were these two angels in the corner of the hospital room waiting for her. You can believe that or not.

Secondly, when my mother was in hospice, she said to me. “Tom, I am afraid of dying. I don’t know what is waiting for me. I am very afraid.” This really bothered me because she was a devout Catholic and I thought she should be more prepared for death. I was disturbed until a short period after her service my mother came to me in a dream. She was sitting in her favorite chair with the Mona Lisa smile on her face and communicated to me. “Tom everything is great, I am at peace, do not be concerned about me.” You can believe that or not.

Thirdly, I met this girl in grade school. We became very attached to each other. We had something special. Being the jerk I was in high school; I ended the relationship. Around sixty years later she came to me in a dream and said “Tom, I was meant (created) for you. However, you rejected me. Our lives would have been totally different if you would not have rejected me.” I woke up with a start and it bothered me. After a period of time, I did some research and discovered that she died three days before I had this dream. Did a spirit visit me? You can believe it or not.

Forth, I was taking a walk alone in the afternoon and this voice said to me. “Tom, stop trying to be somebody you are not, just be yourself, that is why you are on earth. Since then, I am just being myself.

Finally, I had a near death experience and after I thought I took my final breath I was someplace, and I felt PEACE, TOTAL PEACE! What I felt is difficult to explain. I was having a feeling I have never felt in my eighty plus years, PEACE! I truly believe I experienced a preview of time after death.

In conclusion, my religious experience and the above spiritual events has prepared me for the final days. The final days may be soon or twenty years from now. When the time comes, I will be ready to experience that feeling of PEACE, TOTAL PEACE!

I am convinced God loves us unconditionally and Christ died for our sins.

Daily writing prompt
How important is spirituality in your life?