These are hard days for Love. Read the news and you learn that Love suffers another blow. Look around and you see how Love languishes. Love is weary. Love is lonely. Love is irritable.
The fragility of Love leads some of us not to expect much from it. We acknowledge Love as a principle, pay it respects on Valentine's Day, preach it as a goal to press toward, but we are less inclined to embrace Love as an actual force. Yet Love has no power in the abstract. Love languishes when it's out of practice.
And Love is lost when it's out of place. It doesn't seem to belong in the brutal world of politics or economics, so we don't bring it along. Love had better stay behind, we say. Love is safe among friends, we conclude. Yet Love doesn't do well at home if it's not also in the world. Love's odds are better outside.
When Love languishes and Love is lost, we must put aside perceptions and conclusions about Love and really get to know Love. There's no better way to become acquainted than to meet Love in the flesh.
When I meet Love, here's what I discover:
Love is a worker. The labor of Love is a pleasure. Love likes heavy lifting and getting hands dirty. Love does not shrink from challenging chores.
Love is a stranger. The look of Love is exotic. Love is aware of difference and never pretends it is otherwise. For Love delights in dissimilar eyes that see each other.
Love is a traveler. The longing of Love is to go forth. Love wants to get out, even if the path is difficult. And Love desires traveling companions, for Love beholds greater wonders when its witness is shared.
Love, I find, is not oblivious to the times. Love knows how hard things are. So Love is patient with idealism but prone to pragmatism. Love wants to get things done. I think we might all appreciate that today. I for one love that Love is ready and restless.
I love that Love just steps into it. I love that Love knows a half-baked idea keeps cooking outside the oven. I love that Love knows how to walk and chew gum at the same time.
How about you, my friend? What do you say today about Love?
Can you and I rediscover this singular force? I think we can, so long as we trust each other to begin.
For I believe that Love finds us and finds its goal after starting out. And I believe that Love finds its way as we go there together.