At dinner in NYC Monday night, one of us said, “There are different kinds of love,” and then in very open, honest terms described these over a particular shared experience that was in fact experienced in many different ways.

And then this posting arrived, as though the conversation wanted to continue. She asks: What are these many forms, these things each one of us know about love, “in all its surrealistic avatars”? When does love honor the “unique individuality of the other”? When does it move us “from the narrow confines of our ego into the broader, more generous realm of relationship”?

There is of course a connection here to health, as Dr. Dean Ornish (among so many others) makes: “Love and intimacy are the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well, what causes sadness and what brings happiness, what makes us suffer and what leads to healing. Our survival depends on the healing power of love, intimacy, and relationships.”

It’s a conversation worth continuing.