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!