MOMENTS, NOT WORDS

“Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! And Shine!”

~ Buddha

When I think of those who’ve taught me how to love, moments come to mind, not words. As far back as grade school, when Lorrie wouldn’t stop spinning when recess ended. Spinning to a deeper, higher call, she laughed, her little head back, her arms wide, trying to hug the world.

Then, the day Kennedy was shot, there was my choir teacher, Mr. P., crying for a man he didn’t know, letting us go home, but I came back to hear him play a sad piano to what he thought was an empty room. And Grandma holding my little hands open on her basement steps, saying, “These are the oldest things you know.”

Or the changing faces I would wake to at the foot of my bed while recovering from surgery. Or my father-in-law watering black walnuts six inches high that wouldn’t be fully grown for a hundred and fifty years. Or my oldest friend who always listens like a lake.

Though words can carry love, they often point to it. It is the picking up of something that has dropped, and the giving of space for someone to discover for themselves what it means to be human, and the forgiving of mistakes when we realize that we’ve done.

~ Center yourself and bring to mind three people who have taught you how to love.

~ As you breathe, recall the moment that revealed each lesson.

~ Discuss these teachings with a loved one.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo