Indian Pipe (Monotropa Uniflora): Love In Some Best Senses, Biological Symbiosis, Relaxation Response

Here are some thoughts about ~

Love in some of its best senses:

' ... love in its best sense is empathy; delight; sympathy; centered caring; tenderness; sensitivity; ineffable ecstasy; incredibly positive - potentially lifelong - feelings of connectedness; sublimity; kindness; “love in the air;” gentleness; an understanding of developing, mutual otherness; friendship; mirthful, playful freedom in mind, words and gestures; thoughtfulness; dating; cuddling/physical intimacy/sensuality (1-2 hours per day); making love (intimate and warm)~coitus; a delightful, “glowing” party; ongoing smile / sincere and charming affection / “flow” experiences (for “flow,” see Csikszentmihalyi’s “Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience” - 1993) with a community / network across generations; openness; generosity; coming closely in tune with good friends; fulsome trust; anticipatory, beneficial surprises; sweetness; nurture; receptivity {to love}; sharing; hail gladdening love; non-harming, altruistic engagement; acts of kindness ~ voluntarism; considerateness; cordiality; congeniality; collegiality; flourishing (viz. eudaimonia); warm, radiant fun; sociable, flirtatious, and gleeful inner and outer movement, that some people experience while dancing (e.g. unconditional~free-form dancing, New England contra-dancing, Scottish Country Dancing, Dances of Universal Peace~Sufi dancing, contact improvisational dance jams, etc.); having a ball with you; euphoric merriment; cherishing as well as feeling / being cherished; (love-related) passion; the numinous; a loving bliss economy~loving bliss indices {a way of measuring groups' affective neurophysiology, as a whole, linked with socially conscious, index, mutual funds}; old friends; an unburdened feeling of lightness of being; falling in love; the fun of raising / being with kids; cheeriness; positive psychology (viz. Seligman's “Authentic Happiness”); following your bliss; well-received, intense, salutary interest; the deep, inward release that comes in remarkable / easing moments and which is cultivatable; deeply exuberant, beneficent pleasure with another ~ a partner ~ a love; best friends; understanding; reverie; friendliness; what gives you joy?; imagination to love profoundly, and then to love; wholesomeness; well-being; peace, peace of mind, and at peace-ness; being in love; ahimsa (non-harming); a good connection; virtue, esp. of transcendent, jubilant love; helpfulness; doing good; loving touch (e.g. a gentle hand, hugs, massage, Watsu*Waterdance {Wassertanz} & more); singing "I love you;" the inspiration for the creation of great, loving art; rich, bountiful inventiveness / imagination in amity; Harbin Hot Springs ~ harbin.org; heart consciousness; harmony; the neurochemistry of romantic love~heightened levels of four neurotrophins, - i.e. NGF, BDNF, NT-3, and NT-4 (Emanuele et al., 2005); loving bliss ~*MMmmm ~ loving bliss and practices for this*~ (naturally, and with many qualities, but ecstasy is a reference experience ~> oxytocins~dopamine); practicing loving bliss vis-à-vis a musical instrument; balance; wonderful, oceanic wholeness; free love; happiness; contentment; the joy / rapport / 'reading' of minds that goes on between two (or more) skillful musicians / listeners, who are improvising; love letters; harmony love fests; love is the answer; loving bliss as friends; the thought, experience, and generation of love; quiet wisdom ~ love of wisdom; and sophisticated, intuitive caritas ... '

{from my Dalton Friends' Letter ~ scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm}

How to cultivate love richly in life? ~ Engage each of the expressions above as if practicing a musical instrument can be one sensible approach, I think ...

scottmacleod.com/GuidelinesPracticingLovingBlissvavMusicalInstrument.htm


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Indian Pipe flowers {click on title above to see photo} have a symbiotic relationship with a specific mycorrhizal fungus, the Russula ... treknature.com/gallery/photo176896.htm ... which is a fascinating, specific adaptation, one of so many shaped over millions of years, among the possible 8 - 100 million species on earth. The species makes its 'food' not through photosynthesis, but through its symbiotic relationship with the Russula fungus.

I'm amazed by how abundant life has been. In evolutionary history, an incredibly large number of species / life forms have emerged, most of which are now extinct. There has been so much genetic abundance!


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I'm curious why what the Harvard cardiologist Herbert Benson M.D. characterized as the relaxation response in 1972 isn't in wider parlance or practice in U.S. society, or across the world. For example, no one in Facebook has put the 'relaxation response' in their interests ...