LOVE

This is the week of the feast of Saint Valentine. The actual Saint Valentine has come in question over the years because there is no true historical data on this person. As a matter of fact there is a possibility that the burial place of this person is actually the burial place of numerous martyrs. But iIt is still a delicious holiday created by Chaucer and expounded by Hallmark and the candy companies to sell cards, candy, flowers and romance. I have had some fabulous holidays with the ones I love and some very lonely ones. Somewhere a few years back I decided to allow the holiday to be a reminder to me of what true love is all about. So below are some wonderful words of wisdom written by some of my favorit prophets and masters on the wisdom of Love.

1st Corinthians 13 verses 4-13: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

"What is love? Take a look at a rose. Is it possible for the rose to say, 'I shall offer my fragrance to good people and withhold it from bad people?' Or can you imagine a lamp that withholds its rays from a wicked person who seeks to walk in its light? It could only do that by ceasing to be a lamp. And observe how helplessly and indiscriminately a tree gives its shade to everyone, good and bad, young and old, high and low; to animals and humans and every living creature -- even the one who seeks to cut it down. So this is the first quality of love: its indiscriminate character.

~ Anthony DeMello

Looking at my life
I see that only Love
Has been my soul's companion
From deep inside
My soul cries out:
Do not wait, surrender
For the sake of Love.

Rumi

Below is an excerpt from Kahlil Gibran on Love

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

At the end of the week I will provide you with a few more poets, prophets and wise people who have lived and written about love.