What Is Love? A Course in Miracles Answer May Surprise You

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Subject: What Is Love? A Course in Miracles Answer May Surprise You | Earl Purdy

May 9, 2026

Hello Mighty Companion,

What if the thing you’ve been calling love is the very thing that’s disturbing your peace?

That’s worth looking at. Because most of us were taught that love means sacrifice, worry, obligation, control, or getting somebody to finally act the way we need them to act so we can feel okay. And when they don’t do it, we suffer. We call it heartbreak. We call it betrayal. We call it love. But A Course in Miracles is asking us to look again.

This week, we are practicing gratitude because gratitude is not separate from love. Gratitude is the mind recognizing what Love has already given. Appreciation is love in action. When you appreciate someone, you are not trying to control them, change them, or make them responsible for your happiness. You are seeing their value. You are acknowledging the gift. You are choosing to look with love instead of lack.

So this week, pay attention to what you are asking love to do for you. Are you asking it to control somebody? Are you asking it to prove your worth? Are you asking it to make you feel safe because you don’t want to look at your own thoughts? Before you try to get love from somebody else, pause and ask yourself: Am I appreciating, or am I bargaining?

As you sit with this teaching, you may find that real change comes through steady practice, shared reflection, and a place to keep returning when old patterns come up. That is what the Annual Membership offers. These member-only resources include live gatherings, weekly Study Guide Journals, unlisted ACIM playlists, the Language of Love Glossary, and exclusive workshops to support you in applying the Course and experiencing more peace now.

Come join us in community.

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With love and appreciation,
Earl

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Every month, Earl and the Mighty Companion Miracle Community Members join is a 90-minute LIVE Zoom call to explore practical ways to apply ACIM to real life situations.

The featured video for this past week was:

What Is Love? Gratitude, Appreciation, and Inner Peace | A Course in Miracles W-123 | Earl Purdy

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On the LIGHT side

When something in your life feels stuck, your first impulse may be to push harder, fix it, or figure out how to force a change. But the real shift does not come from strain. It begins when you start to discover the light of who you are. As that light comes into your awareness, you begin to see differently, respond differently, and open to possibilities that were hidden when you were looking through fear, confusion, or self-doubt.

A Clarity Session is a focused conversation where we gently look together at what feels heavy, unclear, or blocked, so you can begin to uncover the light that is already present in you. As your perception shifts, even a little, you may find that what seemed impossible starts to soften. What changes first is not always the situation. What changes first is your awareness, and that change in awareness begins to illuminate a new way forward.

For those of you who want to go deeper, coaching and mentoring offer ongoing support in living from that light more consistently through the teachings of A Course in Miracles. This is where insight becomes practice and where remembering the truth about yourself begins to shape your daily experience. With more than 50 years of studying and living these teachings, I bring that experience into each conversation.

Here are ways we can keep growing together:

Thank you for walking this journey with me.

What Is Love? Understanding the Value of Appreciation

When we ask, “What is love?” most of us are usually asking from our past experience of relationships, sacrifice, disappointment, control, need, and fear. We may think love means someone finally doing what we want, staying with us, approving of us, or making us feel safe. But in A Course in Miracles, love is not a bargain. Love is not sacrifice. Love is not fear wearing a beautiful name.

ACIM Workbook Lesson 123 says, “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” This lesson is about gratitude, but gratitude and love are not separate. To appreciate is to love. To be grateful is to shift the mind away from lack and toward truth. And the truth is that Love has not abandoned you, your value has not changed, and you are more supported than you think.

What Is Love According to A Course in Miracles?

According to A Course in Miracles, love, God, truth, and Creator are deeply connected. If the word God brings up resistance, use the word Love. Use the word Creator. Use the word Life. So when Lesson 123 says, “I thank my Father for His gifts to me,” you can hear it as, “I thank my Creator for its gifts to me,” “I thank Love for its gifts to me,” or “I thank Life for its gifts to me.”

This is important because the Course is not asking you to be grateful in a vague or forced way. It tells you what to be grateful for. Be grateful that Love has not abandoned you. Be grateful that you have not been left alone in fear. Be grateful that your Creator has not left you to wander in the dark by yourself.

The way you feel comes from what you think. So if you feel afraid, depressed, guilty, or angry, you are listening to a thought system that is not love. That does not make you bad. It means you need correction. It means you need another way to look at what you are experiencing.

In this sense, love is not merely an emotion. Love is the truth that remains unchanged beneath the ego’s fear. Love is the presence that does not leave. Love is the reminder that your value is greater than your judgment of yourself.

✨ Astrology for May 9–16: Grounding Through Change

For May 9–16, the astrology points to a week of integration, grounding, and inner reorganization. After last week’s emotional intensity, the focus now turns toward what needs to be stabilized, simplified, or seen differently. Pluto retrograde in Aquarius continues to stir deeper questions around power, technology, community, and collective systems, while the Taurus energy of the week invites us back to the body, our values, our resources, and the quiet wisdom of steadiness.

With Pluto retrograde in Aquarius, we may notice where we have given our peace away to outside structures — institutions, technology, group approval, or the belief that safety comes from control. From a spiritual perspective, this is not a call to fear the changes happening around us. It is an invitation to ask for a healed perception of them. What looks like disruption may also be revealing where an old reliance no longer serves love, freedom, or peace.

The Sun-Mercury cazimi in Taurus on May 14 brings a moment of clarity, especially around practical matters. A cazimi is an astrology term for a planet sitting very close to the Sun — often described as being “in the heart of the Sun.” In this case, Mercury’s themes of thought, communication, decisions, and planning are illuminated through Taurus, the sign connected with finances, stability, the body, resources, and what we truly value. This can be a beautiful time to let the mind become quiet enough to receive a simple next step.

As the New Moon in Taurus approaches on May 16, there is a reset around security, self-worth, and the foundations we are building from. If shifts arise around money, plans, resources, or personal stability, the deeper question is: Where am I looking for safety? The ego looks for safety in control. Love reminds us that our peace is not dependent on the world being perfectly predictable. We can make grounded decisions without making fear our guide.

So this week, let gratitude become the stabilizing force. Appreciate what is present. Appreciate the guidance that comes through stillness. Appreciate the places where life is showing you what needs to be restructured. Change does not have to mean loss. It can be a call to remember that real security begins in the mind that chooses Love over fear.

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