Rev. Lori on Love
A version of this reflection was originally published in the previous week’s Friday Flyer.
Hello Friends,
By the time you get this I should be back in Maine! While on my adventure, a friend of mine from seminary reached out to me from within a dark night of their soul. Struggling with difficult circumstances and a crisis of faith. Feeling disconnected from their faith and love, they asked me if I could tell them what I truly believe about love. I first asked for some time to reflect, but then it just poured out of me. I share my response as it feels like a good snapshot of my brain after time in the clouds.
The first thing that came to my mind was how other cultures have many words for it because it has many, many facets and expressions. As a UU, Love is my name for what others call God. While love can be a feeling, for me the “feeling” is only a small part of the fullness of the word. Because it is also a verb and at the center of decision making and right relation. For ourselves and others. And it often means choosing the gifts and wellness in our life and the enormous web of our creation that we have been given. Not things that denigrate or take away from gifts. In addition to our very life and wellness and how we spend our energy, other gifts may be family, friends, safety, food, beauty, wellness…or what we value. However, there is Love/God in everything (mostly) and we can choose to see it or choose it when we are able. Sometimes we can’t or won’t or don’t. Since love is our origin and our trajectory for me my North Star, when I can’t figure out or am unable to choose it because I am angry or unwell, or confused or feel broken, that is what I call sin. Not being able to see or touch that core of Love. But sin or disconnection from Love/God is never the last word for me because I have faith we always return to it even when we are released into stardust again. Because the energy of creation is magic and amazing beyond words. And we live our lives chasing it or compulsing unhealthily because we feel its absence. We are complex and free to choose and such a small part of it and incomplete. Not broken just one small part of it that when we see ourselves disproportionately to creation, we lose the whole point and the essence and trajectory. We are meant for community and to support each other and creation and our small (or large) understanding of love at the center of it all. Love calls us to extend grace to all the people and places and especially ourselves when we miss whatever mark is missed. That is what Love means to me.
These were my words for a friend. They felt like pretty good UU theology after they spilled out of my fingertips. I will leave you with my parting line from that text, and your questions:
More importantly, what do you think Love is? Where do you see it in your life?
Peace and Blessings,
Rev Lori Whittemore
(she, her, hers)
Unitarian Universalist Church of Saco Biddeford