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Today's
Meditation:
Love doesn't just happen. And it's not something
that improves with age or grows ripe or comes with
directions. Love is the result of effort-- effort to
be aware of the needs of others, effort to fulfill those
needs, effort to feel compassion and do something about
it, effort to help where help is needed, even if that help
is just being there and listening when you might rather be
talking yourself.
"Romantic" love helps to perpetuate the myth
that love is just something that we fall into, like a
swimming pool or a puddle of mud. When we see love
as something that we "fall" in, then we have no
responsibility for that love or for any work that will
make that love stronger. After all, when we fall in
love, we're both committed to each other, and everyone
lives happily ever after, right?
The answer, of course, is no. That's not
right. Sometimes love requires us to do things we
don't want to do, like ground our daughter or reprimand
our son. It may require us to stop doing something
we love doing, and it may require us to start doing things
that we don't really want to do. Love requires us to
take strong actions when and if love is our highest
priority, and when and if the motivation behind all of our
actions is, indeed, love.
When Susanna says that "love doesn't suit the
lazy," she makes it clear that we cannot be lazy in
our approach to love. Love takes effort, and most
importantly, love is worth every effort that we give to
it. We must decide not to be lazy if our love is to
come anywhere close to reaching its potential; it's not
going to do so just because we want it to or through some
act of life or God or nature. It's completely up to us and our
efforts.
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