Love and commitments

Someone has died, someone I know who was around my age. I didn’t know her for long, but I feel I had a bond with her. Her way of being made it easy to be close with her.

I have been thinking about what will change in the world with this person gone, and it has has highlighted for me how she lived her life as a life of love.

She was so full of love that she seemingly couldn’t help showering people far as well as near with gifts of time and thought, with love. Knowing her was a bit like being near a fountain that sprays water upward. The water goes up, and then a natural force of the the earth, gravity, alllows the water to fall. It falls all around, where it will. The taller and more energetic the upjet of water, the more broadly the rain of water coming down can reach around. And if you aren’t dappled with the drops of love, it is because of the wind and not because the fountain gives less. The wind may be bringing extra to the leeward side, bringing a bit more love to another part of the world.

The fountain doesn’t expect something back: the source of love is below the surface and it is continuously replenishing the fountain. The fountain doesn’t worry about alloting only some portions of love: it sends up the water with energy but it seems effortless. It seems to go on and on, spraying joy to those near enough to be dampened.

My friend’s ability to bring joy and love to those around, is hallmarked by confident self-love. It comes from someone who has been able to overcome whatever hurts came her way. It is someone who is not afraid to trust in love, in God, in other people. This is what is incredibly refreshing to those around who are dappled with the water: joy, love, and handmade cards, coming your way because the giver is not afraid to trust and to give generously.

“I don’t want to know how old you are. Your age tells me how long you have lasted but not what you have made of the previous time you have been given.” This quote above from Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s book The Invitation is from a chapter which goes on to discuss taking risks, dealing with fear. Oriah Mountain Dreamer is a wonderfully honest author whose very honesty is challenging. She writes about betrayal of promises, and how commitments which have been taken for granted may be betrayed without those involved finding it easy to acknowledge. Promises to be faithful are on my mind, faithful in terms of keeping faith, in terms of not betraying the other person’s best interests, in terms of love meaning giving love and inspring honest commitment. What promises have you forgotten to keep – what promises have been made and allowed to become something of the past? In what part of your life would the fountain of joyful love bring a needed drenching?