The Many Ways of Love

Out of the bright moonlight
in a quiet night by the river
along the mountain ridges
of an old Indian spiritual place
I came to realize that love
has its many ways...

Listening is also loving
especially when one listens
with a heart to what a friend
really needs, not what one thinks
the friend might need.

Understanding is another way
when I can put myself
in the very shoes and heart
of the one I love,
I can get a glimpse of true love.

Giving of myself is also love's way
my time, my energy and my very self
a joyful gift of love
for the beloved
without any tag price.

Maybe one that is often forgotten
is just being - the way of presence
even in silence, unspoken language
it is still love, it is still real
the in between spaces of stillness.

Or an absence, which makes the heart
grown fonder as the wisdom of the ages
again and again reminds us
for the love to true must endure
some form of not being there.

Finally, I may say
Love to be love must offer
some act of martyrdom
some witness of sacrifice of self
for the beloved - love's highest way!

M. SCOTT PECK M.D.
defined love as:
"The will to extend one's self
for the purpose of nurturing
one's own or another's spiritual growth."
- From THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED p. 81

And here is what I say...
Love is only love
when it is given
freely, willingly, gladly
spontaneously
what is best, noble
and true to the beloved.

And in the process
of giving and receiving love
there is the blossoming
of each other's lives
especially and surely
a growing spiritual life
is deeply felt
in the mutual assurance
and support of loving,
caring, norturing love.

And in the fruitfulness
of loving, caring and sharing
even the silence and absence
of what is physical
cannot surpass the depths
and heights and widths
of love's horizonless panorama
of what is beautiful and lasting.

The whole world is a stage
and a great space to be
a man, a woman, a child
a person to love and be loved.
I believe that part of the problem
in any spectrum or experience
of life in the world
is the lack of the real experience
of love...

I can only give what I have
If I have no love
meaning the flesh and blood,
the marrows and bones,
the heart and soul
of a true, real, pure
love in me...I cannot love.

John Powel, SJ said once,
"The greatest tragedy
in the world is not having
the experience of being loved
and loving in return."
My new vision of life is
when there is no love
may i bring and gently offer love.

Out of the sad and bleak reality
of abandonment and neglect,
of abuse and isolation,
of anything unloving and false,
here I am today
just ready and willing
to accept and embrace
to value and respect
to realize and achieve
the next perfect act of love!

"After He has loved His own
who came from the world
He will love them until the end." - John 13:1

It's my Word of Life
given my a saintly figure
a spiritual mother
of many children for unity!

With that word
came a short note
that the vision of my life
will be...that the love
which God so lavished on me
I will gladly share to others.

Oh, love is a breath
it is keeping me alive
every moment
of each new day.
I love when I give
the best of me
at every given moment
to every person I meet.

Who am I
if I do not love
What is love
if not lived out
in the human arena
where heroes are made
in the quality of love
they share!

"Love till it hurts..."
a saint said so,
and I may add a prayer
that I may love till
it hurts no more...
just loving!

It is so amazing
to be always ready to love
and it is awesome
to believe in love
and live in love.