A Return to Love

When did life turn into a game of Whack-a-Mole? If you switch on the news for even a moment, it’s as if the entire world has turned into a thwacking, walloping, hectic machine. We’re dodging and hopping and pummeling against an elusive something. We argue. We fret. We cry. We regret. We have lost our child-like wonder in the chaos of it all.

Despite the dire state of affairs, I still believe. In goodness. And beauty. And joy. And love. Deep down beyond the trembling, quivering sneakiness of fear lies a calm and tranquility with which we were born. It is still there, even though we may have lost access to it: an innate sense of love so pure and real that it survives any storm we may endure.

My love recently said he’s not sure he believes in the afterlife. That way he won’t be disappointed if there is no such thing, and pleasantly surprised if there is. In my limited understanding of physics, I know energy only changes form. Love is energy. It is our source. And so many people who have had near-death experiences talk about the love they feel as they head toward the light. We come from love. So would it not make sense that we return there?

And what if we were to practice that now? A return to love in the face of hard times may seem nearly impossible. Love when all I see is hate?

And yet. If we succumb to the fire of rage, it will consume us too.

There is more to life than the hate on the screen. The tears. The anger. The frustration. The angst. We have a choice to come from the hate space or the heart space. I opt for the latter.

What does that look like?

We need to be clear that we have real issues we need to address. Our system is broken, but our hearts don’t have to be. We can fill them with purpose and action. We can stand up for what we believe in with mercy and grace.

If raising teenagers has taught me anything at all (and it has taught me more than I ever wanted to know), it is most effective to come from love. A calm voice is more unsettling than a screaming one.

And sometimes we will fail. We will fall short of the mark. We will want to scream (and might actually do it, citing our humanness after all). Yet the goal remains the same.

Return to love.

It is our only hope. It is the only place to be.

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