How I love people. I love how we root and bloom, how we twine around each other and reach for the light, how as far as we grow in the dark of the Earth is as far as we stand in the world. How being human, we are always charged with the vibrancy of a larger presence. In truth, we mirror everything living as we climb and stumble our way up the mountain to the cliff of yes. I recognize each person I come across because I am each on any given day. What matters is whether I shun those who bear my flaws or help them up; whether I turn away when this larger presence seems too strong or keep my birth-eyes open; whether I find a way to meet what is incomprehensible and somehow draw strength from it. What matters is if we can make it to the cliff of yes and shout our secrets to the sky till Heaven is the song we choose to sing on Earth. Perhaps this is the work of love: to hold nothing back. Brother David Steindl-Rast reminds us that ‘I believe’ means ‘I give my heart to this.’ And so, a paradox and challenge for every spirit born to Earth is how to inhabit a thoroughness of being wherever life takes us. This leads us to a life of compassion, of being with other living things in a way that lets them grow. This too is the work of love…….Mark Nepo

as we open to the hearts of our beloveds today, may we feel the hope of all great intentions, of the sweetheart’s glow….great mysteries spark an even wider capacity to listen, to stumble beautifully in the arms of kindness…..ready to love?

We realize in those moments when we are most awake, most alive, in moments we get an inkling of God, we experience total belonging. We simply know for a moment that all belongs to us, because we belong to all. The moments in which we experience this are key moments for understanding what fullness of life means. And the ‘yes’ to this belonging is the ‘yes’ of love. Our heart catches a glimpse of home, and home is where all depend on all. No wonder that a ‘yes’ springs from our heart like a long sigh of relief, of liberation, of homecoming. It is like being in love with the whole universe. Now we see what falling in love is meant to do for us in life’s plan. It is to open our eyes. Growing in love means drawing out the implications of that ‘yes’ which our heart sings out spontaneously when we are at our best. Falling in love is barely the beginning of a great love. The glimpses we catch of our great, blissful belonging are merely a challenge to growth in relationships, a challenge to grow to our full human stature. Only on the wings of love will we rise to that challenge…..David Steindl-Rast

we hope to love well, like the grace of dawn meeting day

Love is a silent language….Rumi