love more

Aren’t there annunciations / of one sort of another / in most lives?

                     Denise Levertov

 

There is no time for love to be born in a world flailing under fear

Trampled by terror, crushed by callousness.

There is no room for love to be born under the heft of pressing grief,

No open portals in the perpetual busyness

Or the list of endless tasks minted newly each morning,

Where “to do” never seems to include “love more”…

 

You are the breaking open of star-streaked cracks where woe loses its sturdy grip,

where in the most ordinary of moments, when all else nudges us further toward despair,

 

suddenly we feel the wild impulse arising to say yes

                               Christine Valters Paintner

___________________________________________________

 

what do we do

with the worst the world can offer?

 

what do we do when the forces of hate and fear

those dread companions

tag team our minds, our hearts, our souls?

 

what do we do when wild fires rage?

when viruses invade?

when leaders lie?

when racists hate?

when justice is denied?

 

what do we do as the world burns

and unravels around us?

 

What do we do when there is no room to move

or even breathe?

and the façade so carefully nurtured

cracks?

 

we say “yes”

 

when the very fabric of our being cries “no”

no hope

no joy

no peace

no love

 

we say “yes”

and let what is good

what is Sacred

what is love

 

trickle through the cracks

into our souls

 

we let all that is good, that is Sacred

that is Love

 

fill us

redeem us

restore us

 

until we can do the one thing

we can do

the only thing we can do in the face of all this evil

 

love more

 

for Jesus, the worst the world could do

was the cross

he loved more

 

we are called to follow, to love when it makes no sense

love when it hurts

love when it is not returned

love

 

love more

 

it is not what feels right

it often does not seem to work

it is risky, perhaps dangerous

 

the world says its foolish

those who would dominate say its weak

 

and yet

love more

 

love the person beside you

love the person in front of you

love the person who infuriates you

love the person who embraces all that you loathe

love the person who hurt you

love the person you want to hurt

 

love by listening

love by forgiving

love by understanding

love through compassion

love generously

 

be loving in your words

be loving in your deeds

 

let all that is good

all that is Sacred

all that is love

 

bubble up from your soul

 

and love more