Hello friends and welcome to this reflection and poem about love.
At the time of recording,
I'm facilitating an Advent retreat and the theme for yesterday was love.
What better theme is there than love?
And especially at Advent,
Love becoming perfectly incarnate and showing us the way of love.
So whether you're listening to this at Advent or another time,
May love find you in these words.
May love come and sit with you and offer her goodness,
Her grace and her kindness.
When the noise of life of the world seems too loud and you can't find your footing.
When your head feels like it's full to bursting and thoughts bounce around from one to another without ceasing.
When your arms are hurting from the weight of what you carry and you're not sure you can put anything down because it's all demanding your attention.
When tears are not far from falling and your shoulders ache from carrying it all.
If you can,
Remember love.
Remember that you are loved and that if you put it all down,
Even for a moment,
You are still enough and still deeply,
Fully and wholly loved.
Love always finds you.
Love always awaits you.
Love finds a way to reach you,
Even when you're unable to reach yourself.
In troubled waters,
Love arrives to soothe and restore.
In desert heat,
Love brings a much needed drink.
In too much noise,
Love turns down the volume.
Love is always needed,
Whether we know it or not.
We are made for love,
From love,
In love and to love we shall return.
Love is our inheritance and our destiny.
It is the truest,
Surest thing there is and it is ever present,
Even when we find it hard to love ourselves.
Pause,
Dear one,
And take a seat,
Remembering love.
Put it all down for this moment and take a deeper breath.
Place your hands on your heart and welcome love.
She is here to sit with you and offer her presence.
Let love lift your burdens and enter into it all with you.
Welcome the words of this poem by Shellen Harkin,
Called Love Awaits You There.
It's easier to notice pain than love.
Love is the silence in the robin's throat that inspires it to sing.
Love is the silent mantra of the universe that keeps things spinning.
Pain is the tree that crashes in the forest.
Love is what grows from the fallen.
Love is the silence cupped in the perfect folds of an autumn leaf.
The beauty that dances through everything,
When your worried mind has finally stilled.
We forget to notice love because of its perfect loyalty.
Morning dew diamonding the grass.
The extra sparkle in snow.
For what other reason need it be there?
The unconditional warmth arising daily to fill your sky.
The ongoingness of flowers.
Pause,
Dear one.
Love awaits you there.
Rest a while in love,
My friends,
And find all that you need.
