Chapter 3

TO BE LOVED.

"I desire to attract love from the Infinite or somewhere, that I may not be starved for it, as I have been ever since I married. My husband sneers at the New Thought, and in fact at nearly all that is best in me."

Caroline.

And yet this woman has children to love her. She thinks she is in need of being loved; but what she really needs is _to love_. Being loved is the _effect_ of loving. A loving man or woman can never want for love. Others turn to them in love as naturally as flowers turn to the sun.

In order to be loved you must _radiate_ love. Instead of trying to attract the love of others, seek to _give_ your love to others, _expecting nothing in return_. After a time you will find the unexpected coming to you spontaneously.

Learn to love by loving _all_ people and _things_, and especially all things you find to do.

This same Caroline wants to "rise above drudgery." What _is_ drudgery? _It is simply unloved work_--nothing more nor less. _Any_ work which is looked down upon, and which is done with the hands _whilst the heart and mind are criticizing it_, and running out after other things,--_any_ work thus done is drudgery. Work done with the hands _and a small and unwilling part_ of the mind, is drudgery. To her who _respects_, and _loves_, and does with a will what she finds to do, there is no drudgery.

Let the woman who longs to be loved begin to _love_, by practicing on her work. To quit calling it "drudgery"; to put _all_ her mind and will and _soul_ into _each_ piece of work as it comes; is the first and longest step toward loving it. It is an easily demonstrated fact that we learn to love anything we persist in doing with a whole-souled will.

To love our work enlarges our capacity for loving people, and the more we love people, _and the more people we love_, the more radiant we become.

It is the radiant lover whom all the world loves. Do you know that love and the lack of love are governed by "auto-suggestion"? It is _natural_ to love, as every child does. But as we grow up we keep saying to ourselves (this is auto-suggestion, you know) that we "don't like this," and we "don't like that," until really we _shut up_ our love and live in a continual state of "don't like"--a state which in due time develops into _hate_--hate for self as well as others. "Don't like" does it all.

Now _cultivate_ love by auto-suggestion. Keep saying, "I _like_ this," and "I like that." _Hunt_ for things to like, and even tell yourself you like things when you don't _feel_ that you like them at all.

Feeling is a _result_ of suggestion. Nothing easier to prove than that. A hypnotist can, by suggestion, make you feel almost anything, whether it is true or not. He will say, "You feel sad," and straightway you will feel so. Then he will say, "You feel happy," and you do. Your feelings are like a harp, and your _statements_, or auto-suggestions, are the fingers which pick the strings. Take good care to play the tunes you _want_--to say you _like_ things, or love them. Then you will quickly respond and _feel_ that you like or love them. Keep _practicing_ until you love _all_ the time. Then you will _be_ loved to your heart's content.