I am so thankful for weathered love, the wrinkled lines impressed upon faces and memories that express the joys and sorrows experienced along the winding road of life. We know one another as we know ourselves. We trust our journey together and separate from one another. We love our history as we once loved the fresh beginning. And we take none of this for granted. We still yearn. We still believe. And we still hope for a long future together.
I am so thankful for love as one who stands alone... the single people who cook small meals with great attention, who find loving connections through nature and cats and dogs and art. We understand quiet spaces and solitude as burdens and as gifts that carve us out and open us up. We reach out to others in similar lifestyles, grasping as only single people can, that relationships are everything. We yearn. We believe. And we hope, for ourselves and for others, the grace to live love in all of its facinating forms.
What if we gathered up all of the young love and all of the weathered love and all of the single love and made a new government office called "The Only Way." What if we took all of the excitement and energy of young love and all of the balanced, nurturing wisdom of weathered love and all of the quiet strength of single love into public schools? What if we took passion and healing and attention to the hearts of misguided powerhouses? What if we stood with our thirst and our history and our grace with all of those impoverished, all of those unheard and unseen, all of those beautiful souls lacking in love, understanding, or simple necessities? What if young love and weathered love and the love of those who stand alone joined hands and decided to love the unloveable back to life? What if we declared love rather than war, relationship rather than division, simplicity over confusion, and process and trust over competition and fear?
The essence of this life is always, ultimately about love.
Egypt, North and South Korea, Haiti, Austrialia, Afganistan, Gaza, Louisiana, homeless shelters, retirement homes, hospitals, airports, schools, government offices, insurance companies, rehabilitation centers, military bases, our own homes... the only way to find our way, to heal our way... is to show up and give what we've got.