Love

                                    Love                                 September 2013

                          by Norm Lowry

Love is the Divine Essence,and the altar of its flowering;

The Love and the beloved, spoken into existence;

The rudiment, development, pilgrimage and never-ending destination, 

The refulgent, imperishable merger of infinite and finite beauty.

Love is the embrace of the solitary nature inherent in both life and death;

The seeming desertedness from which all genuine concomitance springs;

The perceived tragedy; the death to self which removes the fear from truth-telling;

The submissive individuality which allows risk-filled adventure, in a world as alive as we.

Love is the adoption of a new inclination; a resolute fixedness of attitude;

The posture of stalwart conduct; the animus of selflessness; the practice of fruitful suffering;

The quintessence of unconditional giving;  the negation of tyranny; the repudiation of violence;

The coming home to indiscriminate intimacy; the reconciliation with everyone and everything.

If I want Love, my aim will be to live a life of uncontaminated tenderness;

Self-conceit, self-exaltation, envy, suspicion and resentment will cease;

Vitality will be birthed in the privacy of silent embrace with our Creator and with all mankind.

Affirmation will emerge from the knowledge that the meaning of life cannot be discovered alone.

If I want Love, I will be sated with serenity, peace of mind/heart and centeredness;

Gloating, dejection, distress and threat of terror will not influence what I think or do;

My choices will disclaim all outgrowth of my actions and offered homage of others;

Security is assured in who, or more pointedly, whose I am.

If I am Love, my joy is to indiscriminately and boundlessly cherish both God and man;

My pursuit is patient endurance, nonjudgmental favor and unrestricted access to all;

My discipline is subjugation of all self-concern to mastered intellect tempered by wisdom;

My pledge is the promise that  my word my be taken to the bank.

If I am Love, polar opposites of both nature and emotion will be treated as identical;

My actions will be trustworthy yet will not influence or bias my course;

Praise will not inflate my sense of substantiality; criticism will not reduce me;

Running from danger and leaving precious ones unprotected will never occur.

To Love is to realize that "God (Perfect Love) for me is inscrutable yet transparently apparent; undecipherable yet palpable."  (Eileen Fleming)