The Way to Love.
The path is clear, but will we choose it?
“What is Love?”
In November, during a weekend of silence, I read a little book called “The Way to Love” by Anthony De Mello. It’s the tiniest book I own, yet one of the most impactful.
The words are still working their way through my soul.
With laser precision, De Mello names what’s true about our human nature and cuts through any illusions you and I have about the quality of love we offer the world. Through 31 meditations, the book wrestles with the ultimate question of Love.
“Take a look at a rose. Is it possible for a rose to say, ‘I shall offer my fragrance to good people and withhold it from bad people?’ Or can you imagine a lamp that withholds its rays from a wicked person who seeks to walk in its light? It could only do that by ceasing to be a lamp. And observe how helplessly and indiscriminately a tree gives its shade to everyone, good and bad, young and old, high and low; to animals and humans and every living creature — even to the ones who seek to cut it down.
So this is the first quality of love: its indiscriminate character.”
-Anthony De Mello, The Way to Love
Even on my most kind and pure-hearted days, I can’t claim that my love has such an indiscriminate nature. I’ll never look at trees the same.
Yet, I don’t think anyone would argue that what the world needs now, perhaps more than ever, is love.
How can we move closer to the love we were designed to express, reflecting the image of God?
De Mello provides the answer.
“Here, too, is the only thing that you need to do to acquire this quality of gratuitousness that characterizes love.
You can open your eyes and see.
Just seeing, just exposing your so-called love for what it really is, a camouflage for selfishness and greed, is a major step…”
-Anthony De Mello, The Way to Love
When I first read this, it stung.
Now that I’ve sat with it and begun paying very close attention, I think it’s true.
“Love springs from awareness…
The most painful act is the act of seeing.
But it is in that act of seeing that love is born.”
-Anthony De Mello, The Way to Love
Happy Valentine's Day, friends.
With Kindness and Love,
Kristin
P.S. The One Thing.
