The real story comes from a love-source

that cannot be understood with intellect,

but known only as a person is known.

….Coleman Barks

extraordinary love is really about extraordinary care…..to slow down and notice, so that we may truly see….so that we may come from our best intention…to bring our most human qualities to bear witness in awakening, stepping away from the human battle….emotional wisdom sees tenderness as the ultimate strength..love is ordinary, unshakable beingness…

When I think of those who’ve taught me how to love, moments come to mind, not words. As far back as grade school, when Lorrie wouldn’t stop spinning when recess ended. Spinning to a deeper, higher call, she laughed, her little head back, her arms wide, trying to hug the world. And Grandma holding my little hands open on her basement steps, saying, ‘These are the oldest things you own.’ Or the changing faces I would wake to at the foot of my bed while recovering from surgery. Or my oldest friend who always listens like a lake. Though words can carry love, they often point to it. It is the picking up of something that has dropped, and the giving of space for someone to discover for themselves what it means to be human, and forgiving of mistakes when they realize that they are……Mark Nepo

vulnerability meets the art of being human…

Family is a mirror. In our spouses, our lovers, our parents, and children we find our needs and hopes and fears writ large. Intimate relationships reach in and touch our history without anesthesia. The wounds we carry, the longings we have to be nourished are right on the table. They need to be respected. That is why even in our own families, to say that we love one another underneath it all is not enough. We also need to be tolerant and respectful of one another. We extend the same large hearted spirit to the members of our family that we practice in prayer or in the non-judging awareness of our inner states. Tolerance and blamelessness grow when we see the remarkable and strange qualities in each of the lives we touch. Every person is singular and unique, expressing his or her own nature- even those who are difficult are living the best they know how….Jack Kornfield