From the editor:
Perhaps the best way to answer that is to look at ourselves when we are feeling loved by someone. What is that experience like? For me it’s a feeling of amazement that someone loves me in spite of myself!
When I am feeling really
loved, the person whom I’m feeling loved by, does so in spite of all my defects,
all my frailties, all my mistakes and imperfections. They love me through my
darkest nights and regardless of all the emotional baggage I come with, they do not abandon me.
This kind of love leaves me
in awe, for it is all embracing. It is patient. It is not intent on changing
me. It is not forceful. It does not withdraw when I don’t meet its conditions,
because it has none. It is something I can rely on no matter what!
Real love knows that I am a
package deal: with pretty parts and ugly ones too. It receives me as I am at
any given moment in time, even when I’m a handful, even when I’m upset, even
when I’m lost. And it does so without ever diminishing. In fact, this love does just the
opposite. It grows! So it is anything but stagnant, and it blossoms in the most dynamic, energizing ways.
True love is forgiving and knows that I, myself, am not perfect
at loving, yet loves me anyway.
This kind of love is
reciprocal and flows in two directions just as enthusiastically. It is not
unrequited love. And it does not leave to find something higher, or better. For
true love has faith that the purest love can be cultivated even between human
hearts, as we are all divine at our cores.
Real love brings you in
such proximity with another person that sometimes you forget where you end and
they begin! Pablo Neruda -one of my favorite all-time poets- describes that
kind of intimacy with another soul here, in his “100 Love Sonnets”:
“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in
secret, between the shadow and the soul…I love you without knowing how, or
when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you
in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which
there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so
intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
I believe that we each may
have different conceptions of what love is. So many cultures and traditions
around the world and across time have attempted to define love, to encapsulate
love’s boundlessness within the limits of words. Some speak of different kinds
of love, and degrees of loving. Some say that one love is more pure than others.
I believe we all
long to be loved, and are trying our best to love others.
It is our nature. It is at
the core of why we exist. As I see it, the closer we are to loving purely, the
closer we are to being ourselves and fulfilling our very life’s purpose.
So, as far as perfect
lovers goes: I think we are all “works-in-progress”. And on our way there, my
friend Maru reminds us in her poem below that it’s good for us to remember that:
“Unless love includes radical acceptance, it should be called something else.” I think I'll meditate on this today, as I take inventory of what’s in my heart.
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| Photography 'This Way Together" by Jessica Christ |
I LOVE
I love what I see and what
you veil
What you show or insinuate
Who you are or I choose to
imagine that you are
I love you in what you lack
and in what you are more than enough
I love what you share of
you and what you hide
Your questions and replies
Your doubts, your
certainties and masks
I love you in your
simplicity and confusion
In what you shout and what
you screen
I love what you ask for and
what you give away
Your memories and
obliviousness
Your laughter and your discontent
I love your scents, your
taste and breath
What you love and what you
escape.
I love you in this spot and
in the distance
I love you for the love of
it
Without a catch, without a
map
If I were able not to love
you, I still would
I love you with the pride
of loving you
I love you because I was
born to
I love you in your insanity
and your stillness
I love you in your joys and
your despair
In your heaven and your
hells
I love you how you are,
exact
I just love you, intact.
Maru Garcia was born and raised in Mexico City. As a kid, she wanted to be invisible when she grew up or work for the circus as a contortionist so she could fit silently in little boxes. She has a degree in Nutrition and believes in veganism as a walking statement of love. She is a very imperfect yogi. Maru loves animals more than anything in the whole wide world, and is a strong advocate for the animals right to just be animals! There is often a doggie or a kitty or a palm tree hidden in her purse on the way to safety. She often gets in trouble for saying exactly what she thinks and feels, no editing, that is her trademark. Maru lives in Playa del Carmen with her 3 dogs, 2 birds and one cat. She does not know yet why she writes. You may contact her on facebook here.
~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~
~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~
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