"Do you wish to have love? If you wish to have love, then you must leave love."
Mechtild of Magdeburg, as quoted in "Christian Mystics" by Matthew Fox
The paradox of this sentence is startling. Leave love to find love? Leave home to find home, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz? Matthew Fox reflects on this quote by likening it to letting go...the art of letting go. I have had some very powerful lessons in letting go, both from my mom and later from my Helen. We must let go of this life to embrace the other, the next. The more we accumulate in this life, the harder that may be. The more attached we are to this life, the harder letting go of Here will be and we may struggle mightily to stay. What does it mean to let go of love, though, to gain love? Maybe it means to let go of false and fake love to find Real Love? Maybe it is letting go of superficial love to find genuine love? We throw the word love around so often--I love my car, I love spinach, I love watching documentaries on Netflix. But that isn't love, really. We cannot really love an inanimate object. Our God-given gift of Love is for people, for life-living creatures. I think it was The Minimalists who said, "Love people, use things, not the other way around." Today, as we embark on a winter Monday, let's think about our relationship with things...and our relationships with people. We are called to love the latter, even if that means letting go of the former. Love, heidi
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