Love is a river

 …drink it in.  ~ Rumi

This means something quite different to me now, than it would have last year at this time - had I read it then.  I didn’t.  I read it on the front of a brand-new-waiting-to-be-filled journal in a bookstore on Christmas Eve.  Flying above the drawing of a picturesque river was a bluish-green dragonfly.  I bought the journal.  How could I not? 

Many of us turn to these days on each year’s calendar with reflections of the present year in its final stages, and with hope for the coming year.  We think of changes we’ll make; challenges we’ll face; champions we’ll create. 

I wonder at the blend of this material world with the indescribable entitity we call the soul.  Or is it, actually, the conflict between the two about which I wonder?  I was once told by a teacher that writing about the soul was dangerous territory, as no one could actually write about it with anything close to words, and therefore, not at all.  I listened, I heard, and I continued to think our souls are waiting for our words, so took little notice of her admonition.  I am, however, careful, when I use the word soul in anything I write.  I just seem to have a friendlier connection to the word, than did my teacher.  I don’t even remember her name.  But, I remember her aversion to writing about the soul.  I’m thinking she was missing something, maybe afraid of getting close to feeling at such depths. 

One’s soul is written in a language known only to him or her, and that essence we call creator.  Okay.  I got it.  And, Owen spoke openly of things that only he could understand, so I accepted that his were words that came from his soul.  I accepted that he knew things he could not explain.  I accepted that he found resistance when he shared those words.  And, he most definitely did.

Do we have to be irrational to write about our souls, to write about hope, to write about the future?  Given where we are in time, given the coming recession (what? there’s another financial downturn coming our way?), given our children who hold out little hope they’ll be able to be self-sustaining, given technology that allows young people to destroy anything akin to good judgment, and so many other givens, how can we expect our children to be rational?  How can we expect it of ourselves?

I prefer to hold rational thought at bay for the moment.  Please, let me just listen to music that lifts my soul, and pleases my heart.  Let me imagine that music can take me to places my mind cannot.  If I listen…

The river will still flow, and love can be found wherever you are willing to talk about your soul.  Drink in love, and your soul will find you sated.

Song for the night:  Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (movement 1), played here by Stephen Hough (at a slightly faster tempo than I prefer, but YouTube is limited, so, well…be it…and go find a better version at your local music store)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OFM_LxkR6Yc

~ by Linda on December 29, 2007.