Love's Genealogy: Tracing What You Valued

What did your former self love? Whom did you serve? What made you feel alive and purposeful? By tracing the genealogy of your loves—the people, causes, ideas, and roles that structured your devotion—you reconstruct your old identity with clarity and compassion. This concept draws on Mirabai's devotional intensity: she knew exactly what and whom she loved, and that knowledge became her anchor and her sword. Your former identity, too, had its devotions. Grieving that identity means honoring what you loved then, even if you love differently now. You might discover that your capacity for devotion itself—the quality of your loving—was the truest part of that old self. What you valued then reveals what you value now. The genealogy of your loves becomes a map of your becoming, and grief becomes gratitude for how that former self loved.