With Shams #23

Love | Remixes | Mothwings

Let me tell you all of the bad things about love.

People often speak romantically about the benefits of deep, connected relationships and unconditional love. But there is a dark reality to love, and I want to talk about it.

You see, love--in any of its forms--ultimately leads to suffering and pain.

Pain from separation. Pain from misunderstanding. Pain from abuses of all sizes, even the small ones that merely nick our hearts.

The most romantic, lifelong relationship you can think of will ultimately end in death.

And before you say, "well that's the nature of people"--this goes beyond humans! The home that you love, the city that you love, your favorite pond or tree grove--these are all destined to change, fall apart, disappear, or otherwise fail to return the deep yearning and love that you hold for them.

We all intuitively know that the objects of our love are imperfect and temporary,

and yet we continue to love.

Rumi often used the metaphor of a moth when talking about love...the moth flies irresistibly toward the candle of love, diving into the flame even at the expense of its own life.

Irrational. Short-sighted. Even masochistic.

But this is not a tragedy--this is a marriage. A union of soul with love, moth to flame. The commitment of the moth to his love is so absolute, so focused, that he merges and becomes one with the flame. All notions of ego and false-self are burned away entirely, dissolving into the fire of union and love.

It is through the difficulty and heartache and commitment to that which is imperfect that we are purified and brought closer to our true self.

I referred earlier to the 'dark reality' of love, but really this is just the 'whole reality' of love. There is light and there is dark, there is pain and there is pleasure, there is life and there is death--these are all part of the balance of this human experience, and I encourage you to not ignore the pain and heartbreak but to embrace it and to look for the deeper meaning that is beneath it all.

Whether your life lately is mostly pleasurable or mostly burdensome, whether your life is mostly light or mostly dark, mostly summer or mostly winter, I hope you'll continue to fly toward love, embracing the pain and the pleasure as the same transforming flame that brings you deeper into you true self.

Somebody to You: The Remixes

Both remixes of Somebody to You are OUT NOW! (literally as of today😁) Both of these remixes are SO FREAKING GOOD, if you haven't listened to them I hope you'll go give them a spin today.

​KIANA NADINE did a funky house edit that you can find here.

​Ascension did a wonky dubstep/bass edit that you can find here.

Hang tight for some new music coming out in May;)

All love ❤️

-SHAMS

"You should wish to have a hundred thousand sets of moth wings, so you could burn them away, one set a night."

-Rumi