souldare

Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:8a ESV)

“Love prays.” (Emerson)

I welcome a fresh start. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new day, a new month or a new year, the beginning of something intrigues me. Choosing a path, deciding what to bring along and what to leave behind can be momentous. But today, one day gives way to another. I will have choices, some old and some new. But each choice draws me into this thing called love.

Love never ends. A comforting thought for one who resists endings. For one who dreads death and good-byes. For one who craves hope and joy and peace.

I surround myself with companions to ease the weight of this journey. Companions with flesh and bones, and ones who engage imagination and intellect. A friend and I challenge each other to read more; another joins me, as we look for meaningful ways to care for our bodies with food and movement.

I choose a pile of books. Potentials. Possibilities. Places to rest my eyes on the written word, which increases my appetite for writing and thinking and believing and creating and making choices and moving towards all that love encompasses. In one of the books in my stack, the author quotes a poet. And a new thought embeds itself in my mind burrowing down into my soul, and even dwelling in my body: Love prays.

Love prays.

For some reason, I never connected the two before. This simple sentence settles into my brain, soothes my soul and surges through my body, raising my hopes. Gaining new insight forms into an intention to pay attention. To see and to notice and to observe, how this sentence might germinate into a practice, as a new year stretches itself out before me, as an invitation to begin again.

Love prays.

Resonance or resistance, which path will I follow this year?

And you?