Love's Energy
“...But
listen to me. Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without any
doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Lift the oars from the water,
let your arms rest, and your heart, and heart's little intelligence,
and listen to me. There is life without love. It is not worth a bent
penny, or a scuffed shoe...”
Mary
Oliver (excerpt from prose poem: “West Wind #2)
There is no poet like
Mary Oliver. In "West Wind #2," she advises not only that we not run
from love, but that we paddle with all our might straight for the
“long falls.” She may be right. Humans are capable of living
contentedly without romantic love, but there has to be something to
take its place, or we don't live well. Having love coming in our
direction is heart warming and deeply moving, but having love going
out of us to others is essential. So we surround ourselves with
friends, family, pets, and we bask in the energy of shared community.
Don't underestimate the power of loving and being loved—it restores broken bodies and lost souls.
Springtime reminds us of
the importance of renewal. In the poem, “Saint Francis and the
Sow,” Galway Kinnell wrote:
“The bud
stands for
all things,
even for
those things that don't flower,
for
everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though
sometimes it is necessary
to reteach
a thing its loveliness
to put a
hand on the brow
of the
flower
and retell
it in words and touch
it is
lovely
until it
flowers again from within, of self-blessing...”
Sometimes, it is
necessary to relearn how to love and be loved. We do it in fits and
starts, and always imperfectly, especially if we've been burned
before—and everyone has been burned before. We practice touching
that hot surface until our hands are tough enough to stand it—because
life without love is like a vacant lot. We stand in the middle of it,
trowel in hand, overwhelmed, but ready to plant something alive,
something that will flower from within of self-blessing.
Today, on this first day
of poetry month, gather your chicks around you, large and small, and
beam some love energy into them. “...When you hear that
unmistakable pounding—when you feel the mist on your mouth and
sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls plunging and
streaming—then row, row for all your life toward it.”
(Oliver) It will renew your soul.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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