An Innate Ability

From the New Era Elements Tarot, the Three of Water (Cups); from the Tao Oracle, Difficulty in the Beginning (Hexagram 3):

I see real love as the most fundamental of our innate capacities, never destroyed no matter what we might have gone through or might yet go through. It may be buried, obscured from view, hard to find, and hard to trust . . . but it is there.

―Sharon Salzberg

Abundance (Three of Water) indicates that there is a wellspring of love that does not turn into a trickle and stop. But this feeling of warmth and joy is based on outflow - it is shared without demands or expectations and depends on a willingness to be vulnerable to receive it. As Henri J.M. Nouwen explained, "Friendship and love cannot develop in the form of an anxious clinging to each other." Hexagram 3 - Difficulty in the Beginning - suggests a feeling of chaos and confusion around us or within us. Yet what is actually happening is that, ready or not, what we have outgrown is falling away. Though it may be difficult at first, this is a beneficial stage of growth that will benefit us later on. It is much like those beginning relationships that feel awkward at first and then later blossom into a deep and beautiful connection.