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Wisdom Quote
By love I do not mean any natural tenderness, which is more or less in people according to their constitution; but I mean a larger principle of the soul, founded in reason and piety, which makes us tender, kind and gentle to all our fellow creatures as creatures of God, and for his sake.
*William Law, Christian author and contemplative (b. 1686)
Story and Comments
Daphne Rose Kingma, poet, psychotherapist, teacher of relationships, tells of an experience in Hawaii. Daphne was weary, after a huge fire in her house. She was lying on the beach and did not want to have conversation with anyone. A little girl with a pinwheel came to her. The little girl asked, "Can I sing you a song?" The girl sang a beautiful song about friendship. The final line was, "So I'm singing you this song and I want to be your friend, will you be my friend, too?"
Daphne gave the following comment on meeting the little girl.
"It was an absolutely exquisite gift. I will never see her again, I don't know her name, but we had an experience of deep connectedness and true love in that moment on the beach. There are hundreds of these moments in life that are so tiny that they don't register on this chart that we've all built about what love is. We think love has to look a certain way, have a certain outcome. But we're constantly gifted with such moments, experiences that are just breathtaking in their purity and their absolutely consecrated perfection."
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It is in simple transactions of love that the ordinary is seen to be sublime. Is it possible that at times our expecting love to arrive into our lives in a certain way blocks seeing how it is present already? Possibly, then, most of us do not need to seek love so much as see the love that God has already given to us through so many persons.
Suggested Reflection
Reread Law's statement on love. Contrast his view of love with the popular view of love in our culture.
See next page for details on OneLife Ministries, Brian's book An Ache for Union, and material pertaining to sources used in the writing.
Feel free to submit a query on how OneLife Ministries can better serve you. Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
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