Latent Love…
“We all have the seeds of love in us. We can develop this wonderful source of energy, nurturing the unconditional love that does not expect anything in return.” —Thich Nhat Hahn
Last week I came upon Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s poem, Latent, in which she invites us to consider “And is joy latent in everything?”
This notion of latency or something lying dormant or hidden, just waiting for the right time to awaken, bloom, or manifest appeals to the sense of hope I feel most days, despite the news and challenges of daily life.
“If human beings can be trained for cruelty and greed and a belief in power which comes through hate and fear and force, certainly we can train equally well for greatness and mercy and the power of love which comes because of the strength of the good qualities to be found in the soul of every human being.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
Of course, negative behaviors, diseases and more can be latent within us too, but like the wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt suggests, surely, we’re at a time in the world where those of us fortunate enough to attend to our inner health should give our attention to feeding and watering the seeds of love, joy, and peace.
As flowers turn their gaze toward the life-giving energy of the sun, we too can turn our gaze toward the life-nourishing watering of these “good qualities to be found in the soul” of each of us. We may not know what we can do in any given moment to address the injustices, tragedies, and cruelties we experience or witness on the nightly news, but we can feed our spirit love.
What good qualities have been lying latent within you that deserve attention?
How can you nourish the seeds of love (and joy and peace) within you today? Whether sending love via prayer to people suffering or giving yourself a hug and pep talk, there are countless ways to nourish the qualities we all want more of.
As you give your attention to them, may the seeds of love, joy, and peace within you blossom and flourish.
The Power of Love…
“Love is within us. It cannot be destroyed. It can be ignored. To the extent that we abandon love we will feel it has abandoned us. Denying love is our only problem, and embracing it is the only answer. Through the power of love, we can let go of past history and begin again. Love heals, forgives, and makes whole.”
—Ernest Holmes
The Forces of Love
“Today, something is happening to the whole structure of human consciousness. A fresh kind of life is starting. Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world are seeking each other, so that the world may come into being.”
―Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
LATENT
Riding our bikes through the warm summer night,
the dark itself parted to let us pass;
wind in our hair, soft whir of the wheels—
and an almost irrational joy grew in me then,
such simple joy, as if joy were always here,
waiting to flourish, needing only to be noticed.
And is joy latent in everything?
I have felt it sometimes in the washing
of dishes, in mowing the lawn,
in peeling the carrots, even washing
the fishtank and scrubbing the floor.
So could it be, too, inside worried pacing?
In envy? In sighing? In the clenching of fists?
Is there joy where I can’t imagine it?
Joy—waiting to spin like a wheel,
waiting to rise like laughter
that careens through the deepening dark.
―Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, as featured on her website A Hundred Falling Veils and in The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace & Renewal, Edited by James Crews.
