Love: A Poetic and Personal Reflection

Who can define love?
Only Love herself; she speaks
In acts more than words.

                                                Jim Peterson

One night I tried a new form of prayer for me – praying to the saints.  Praying first to Saint Mary Magdalene, I asked for “a word,” and for several nights in a row, she gave me a word each night.  One of the first words she gave was “Love.”  Expanding this prayer form, understanding that those who have died become “saints” for us, I prayed to my mother.  Her word came to me quickly and clearly: “It’s all about love.”  For me this short phrase was so true to her essence that it touched me deeply and pointed me to the ultimate essence of life:  our purpose, the goal of life, life’s meaning – however we want to name it – is love.

But what is this that we call “love”?  Poets, songwriters, preachers, theologians, novelists – lovers themselves! – have used rivers of ink to write of love and have not come close to plumbing its depths.  Who am I to try to add to all this wisdom?  Yet I can share some perspectives that bring focus for me.  And for this I draw mostly on the poets and mystics to offer some word pictures. Listen for how these images touch you:

Mary Oliver (poet): Little Dog’s Rhapsody in the Night

He puts his cheek against mine
And makes small, expressive sounds.
And when I’m awake, or awake enough,
He turns upside down, his four paws in the air
And his eyes dark and fervent.
Tell me you love me, he says.
Tell me again.
Could there be a sweeter arrangement? Over and over
He gets to ask it.
I get to tell.

Julian of Norwich (mystic): from Revelations of Divine Love

Love was what God meant [speaking of her first revelation].
Who showed you this? Love.
What did God show? Love.
Why did God show it to you? For love.
[We are] made for love.

Hebrew scripture: Song of Solomon: 7:10; 8:6b-7

I am my beloved’s,
And his desire is for me.
…
Love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love all the wealth of this house,
it would be utterly scorned

Christian scripture: 1 John 4:7-8;16b

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God,
For God is love
….
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God,
And God abides in them.

Jalaluddin Rumi (Sufi mystic): Selected Poems, p. 229, 180

A pen went scribbling along, but when it tried to write love, it broke.
… 
Theologians mumble, rumble-dumble, necessity and free will, while lover and beloved pull themselves into each other.

~~~

For myself, what can I say about love?  In my own prosaic words, love is ultimately about:

• losing my “small self” – my ego-centered self – in and for the sake of the other and for the sake of the relationship, whether the “other” is another person, the mystery some call “God,” or any part of creation; 

• rejoining with that and those from which I have become separated;

• living willingly into the truth that we are all connected and what is good for any one is good for all, including for me; 

• sacrificing my time, energy, resources, or attention for the sake of the larger community.

These are but a few partial and imperfect descriptions of love.  No description is fully adequate, but any description may be a window into the fullness of this ultimately undefinable word.

In what ways do any of the above quotations from others resonate with your sense of “Love”?

 What words, phrases, metaphors, or images might you use to communicate what you understand by “Love”?

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