Worthy of Love: Meditations on Loving Ourselves and Others

By Karen Casey

In this beautifully written meditation book, best-selling author Karen Casey sensitively examines the challenges of love: the love we give friends, family, a lover, even ourselves.

Worthy of Love offers 52 (weekly) inspiring quotes and short readings for those who struggle to love and be loved.

"The irony is that the harder we look for love, the more blurred our vision. Only when we become quiet and trust that love is our birthright do we discover its friendship has enfolded us." --Karen Casey, Worthy of Love

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hazelden Publishing
• Release date: Apr 29, 2011
• ISBN: 9781616491383

Karen Casey

Karen Casey has sold over 3 million books that draw upon meditations, motivations, and religion to guide and support women throughout the world. Based in Minneapolis since 1964, Casey is an elementary school teacher turned Ph.D. Casey published the first of twenty-eight books, Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women, with Hazelden Publishing in 1982. Casey has spoken to tens of thousands world-wide over her forty years as a writer. Through each new experience, her gratitude and commitment grow to continue doing what brings joy to her life. Additional notable works from Karen Casey include 52 Ways to Live the Course in Miracles: Cultivate a Simpler, Slower, More Love-Filled Life, Let Go Now: Embrace Detachment as a Path to Freedom, and A Life of My Own: Meditations on Hope and Acceptance.

Book preview

Cover: Worthy of Love, by Karen Casey

Worthy of Love

Meditations on Loving Ourselves and Others

Formerly Titled The Love Book

(Hazelden Meditations)

Worthy of Love, by Karen Casey, Hazelden Publishing

Hazelden Publishing

Center City, Minnesota 55012

hazelden.org/bookstore

© 1985 by Hazelden Foundation

All rights reserved. First published September 1985.

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this publication, either print or electronic, may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the express written permission of the publisher. Failure to comply with these terms may expose you to legal action and damages for copyright infringement.

ISBN-13: 978-0-89486-339-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61649-138-3

Editor’s note

Worthy of Love was formerly titled The Love Book.

In the process of being reissued in 2022, this book has undergone minor editing updates and been retypeset in the Whitman font family.

To the greatest degree possible, the accuracy of quotations and sources has been verified.

Interior design: Terri Kinne

Interior illustrations: David Spohn

Reissue editor: Kai Benson

Editorial project manager: Cathy Broberg

About the book:

This collection of weekly meditations explores the topic of love between friends, family, lovers, and strangers, as well as self-love, and the challenges and new vistas love offers in any of its forms.

About the author:

Karen Casey is the author and coauthor, respectively, of Hazelden’s best-selling meditation books Each Day a New Beginning and The Promise of a New Day.

About the illustrator:

David Spohn is an artist, author, and graphic designer.

Introduction

There is probably no expression in my life that’s been more difficult to feel, develop, offer, accept, or maintain than love. And I have so desperately wanted to revel in it, certain that if only I knew love, I’d be forever happy, content, and serene every moment, never tragedy’s victim. How foolish our beliefs, sometimes.

My search for love didn’t begin when I was a young woman. Rather, it paralleled my search for security that is rooted in my childhood. As a young child I longingly looked into the faces of others for signs of their love and thus my security. I was haunted by the fear I’d be abandoned. I was certain I was unlovable. After all, wasn’t I always being criticized? What I didn’t know as a child, and still fail to remember with all too much frequency, is that I am loved in the purest sense of the word, and my very existence is my proof. I am a part of the spiritual universe—we are all parts of the spiritual universe which is our Mother—the whole of Love.

But we humans, in our frailty and our ignorance, fail to recognize the bigger picture of love. Instead we pin our desire for love and security on others who, like us, are crippled by their blurred vision of love’s presence.

In my personal search for love, I grasped men and possessions, achievements and causes, finally alcohol and other