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Posts from the ‘Love’ Category

Dec 10

How We Love

“Love knows no limits, but ardently transcends all bounds. Love feels no burden, takes no account of toil, attempts things beyond its strength; love sees nothing as impossible, for it feels able to achieve all things. Love therefore does great things; it is strange and effective; while he who lacks love faints and fails.”― Thomas à Kempis, The Inner Life

“God’s definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.”― Francis Chan, Crazy Love

Encouragement rather than criticism.
Kindness, generosity, compassion.
Forgiving first again.
Taking the high road.
No walls, limits, exclusions, exceptions, burden, toil.
The transformative power of love.
Poured out in simple intentions followed by actions.
A daily choice to make again and again.
Swinging above its weight.
Winning every time.
When all other schemes, plans, pursuits, shortcuts, hacks, work arounds fall short again and again.
Love remains.
Inviting us back to the only thing that works.
That ever will.

“True faith manifests itself through our actions.”― Francis Chan

Nov 12

A Kernal Bursting

“Beauty surrounds us.” ― Rumi

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.” ― Herman Hesse, Bäume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte

Be still.
Be quiet.
Listen.
Observe.
Examine.
With your heart, not your opinion.
The world, starting with self, needs love, not your judgment.
We make God in our image – small, petty, othering, self-righteous.
No wonder people run away fast.
We are made in God’s image.
Beyond comprehension by our underused imagination.
When we discover that, we change the world.
Invite. Welcome. Embrace.
Be kind. Love well.

“And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?” ― Rumi

Nov 10

Like a Shepherd

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” ― Rumi

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.” – Rumi

Actions louder than words.
Bridges to unite.
Tunnels through mountains.
Encouragement rather than criticism.
Hands and feet.
Salt and light.
All else is empty noise.

“The moment we choose to love, we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. – bell hooks

Nov 8

Waterfalls of the Sun

“The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.”― Parker J. Palmer

“You don’t want to hear the story of my life, and anyway
I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it’s the same old story

a few people just trying,
one way or another,

to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind.” – Mary Oliver, Dogfish

Curiosity, inquiry, understanding.
Ask and listen.
Listen more than speak.
Sit quietly and reflect.
Dive beneath the surface.
Dig down to the roots.
Beyond the obvious and easy.
To understanding, interest, empathy, compassion.
To be kind.
Waterfall of light.

“Clinging to what you already know is the path to an unlived life.”― Parker Palmer

Nov 1

All Saints Day

“A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.” – St. Basil the Great

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
― St. Francis of Assisi

Root in kindness.
Then go out into the world.
Bear good fruit.
Love well.
The Saints playbook.

“All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”― Julian of Norwich

Oct 31

To See and Be Seen

“When we take ourselves too seriously, we are at the risk of taking other things, including God, too lightly,”― James J. Martin, Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life

“Noticing helps you realize that your life is already suffused with the presence of God. Once you begin to look around and allow yourself to take a chance to believe in God, you will easily see God at work in your life.”― James Martin, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life

Attune to who and what crosses your path today.
Observe with curiosity and attention.
Notice what is already present.
Love shows up in so many ways.
Mostly simple.
Often unnoticed.
A text from a friend checking in.
Flowers given for no reason.
A greeting and smile.
The power of words of encouragement not criticism, connection, inviting, welcoming.
Love shows up in so many ways.
May it be through each one of us each day.
In our thoughts, words, actions.
The only way the world with change and transform.
Kindness, light, generosity.
The gift of seeing and being seen.

“One of the deepest longings of the human soul is to be seen.”― John O’Donohue

Oct 24

Profundity

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”– Rachel Carson

“This belief in the virtue of the “happy” and suffering-free life sterilizes and shrinks us, minimizing what makes us most beautifully human: our tenderness, our vulnerability, the profundity of our capacity for heartache, the risks of which deliver us into immense joy. The point of this human life, I believe, is love. And the ridiculous and brave and risky act of love turns my heart into taffy, stretches it across the broad spectrum of human feeling.”― Heather Lanier, Raising a Rare Girl: A Memoir

In slowing, perspective.
In yielding, generosity.
In opening, expansion.
In letting go, agility.
In forgiveness, freedom.
In striving, resilience.
In beauty, strength.
In wonder, awe.
In silence, clarity.
In unknowing, growth.
In attention, focus.
In gratitude, grounding.
In inviting, hospitality.
In allowing, connection.
In all of it, love.

“It requires gentle hands but also strong intentions.”― Tembi Locke, From Scratch

Oct 10

Fire all other gods

“When one knows the God of Love, fire all the other gods.” – Fr. Greg Boyle

“The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.”― Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

Our way,
Being right.
Someday when.
Keeping score.
Carrying rocks.
Throwing stones.
Missing this day.
Think again.
Better yet, create space to not think at all.
Open heart.
Light spirit.
Relax, rest, reflect.
Nowhere to be but here.
Steeping in pause, praise, peace.
Love, the journey and destination.

“The outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great.”― Meister Eckhart

Oct 3

1 Comment

Lovingkindess

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” – Thomas Merton

Judge less.
Consider different perspectives.
Expand and deepen.
I to we.
Othering to us.
Get closer.
Understanding the pursuit.
Unlearning and opening.
Softening, lightening.
Unharden your heart.
Kindness first, and last.
Love over fear.

“Kindness is the only strength there is.”― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

Sep 17

Soil and Sun

“The connection you are creating here is like a flower. It requires soil and sun, things that, thanks to God, are given freely. But it is you, all of us, who has to water the flower to make it grow. Without water, all relations remain small. They can’t open, and eventually they die.”― Tembi Locke, From Scratch

“Love is an action, never simply a feeling.”― bell hooks

A daily decision.
To love people where they are.
Self, included.
Not where we want them to be.
Not where they were in the past.
Not where they will be in the future.
Right now, on this very ground.
That’s what makes love so hard.
To move beyond our expectations.
To not get our way.
To offer understanding when we don’t receive it.
When love takes root, it overflows, grows, blooms.
Making it the only viable way to walk through this world with joy.
Less fear, more love.
A daily decision.
Bright. Bold. Beautiful.
Show your true colors.

“But when we feel we are not understood, there is a sense in which we are homeless. And so we must always provide a home of understanding. There will inevitably be times when we do not understand someone’s behavior or a certain response, but we can understand the person.”― Mary Francis, A Time of Renewal: Daily Reflections for the Lenten Season

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