I’ve never felt this way.
Like I am secondary to the one on the other side of this gaze.
Like my purpose is to bring healing.
Like my heart is wide open.
Is this love?
Where did it come from?
I could be hurt, shouldn’t I be afraid?
No, no.
Don’t be afraid.
Picture the ones who hurt you.
Open your heart, and look again.
You’re still safe.
Safe because you can see the broken with compassion.
Safe because love doesn’t need a return, although it often receives one.
Safe because love is greater than judgment, disapproval, and betrayal.
I hold people with my whole heart.
And I don’t need a return.
Is this love?
When did it become so pure?
When did my subversive motivations and secret protections dissolve?
When did my ego get overshadowed by my soul?
I’ve been set free.
When you love someone, even the unloveable parts, you’re set free.
Love has set me free.
I can take the hits from those I’m called to love.
I can see beyond them with my feet on solid ground.
Love doesn’t need any particular treatment to be true.
I don’t need anything in return.
I pour out because I’ve been poured into.
I’m overflowing, and so, I must pour out.
It is a vulnerable abundance.
It is stronger than death.
Even when our bodies die, our souls are tied.
In love.
Oh my, God.
Is this love?
It cannot be overcome.
Open, safe, abundant, and whole.
My God, this is love.
Who showed you all the wounds that love can heal?
Who taught you how to love?
It’s true that first you love yourself.
But someone had to teach us.
First we had to learn that we are lovable.
We were worthy before we had anything to earn.
We were loved into self-compassion and care, boundaries and grace.
But then, from the abundance, we give it away.
This is love.
It’s how we heal the world.
But not all of us have been taught.
Not all of us know how to love.
And so it is the calling of those who do to love the world to healing.
To lay down our own lives and become last.
To take on the pain of the world and transform it.
Love comes first, change comes second.
We thought they had to change for us to love them.
But we are healed into change.
This is love.
The force that heals and brings us together.
It is as simple as it sounds.
The wisdom of children.
Love steps towards.
Love doesn’t walk away, keep busy, or avoid.
Love has open eyes and an open heart.
Love calls us to be last so that the other might be first.
Love alone is enough to heal the world.
When will we believe it?