With Astonishing Love

Posted February 18, 2025

“The love is there. How do you make it real? How do you paint the picture? …You’re on a path and you have to be consistent, and you have to be persistent.” —John Lewis, excerpt from an interview with Krista Tippett

We’re living in a time where distain, contempt, and disgust can so easily be fed the fuel to tip towards hate. How do we resist this and move towards more love…even astonishing love?

Struck by the wisdom gained in the Civil Rights Movement, John Lewis points the way in his conversation with Krista Tippett, as shared in her book, Becoming Wise.

Many of us only saw or heard about images of nonviolence and loving forgiveness in the face of hate, but John Lewis paints a picture of intense work and preparation before the first march ever occurred.

“But we studied. We prepared ourselves. It’s just not something that is natural. You have to be taught the way of peace, the way of love, the way of nonviolence.”
—John Lewis

From spiritual leaders to civil rights activists, we can begin the important work of focusing on the power of love. And Lewis shares the importance of living now as if the dream of “the beloved community” is already here.” We’re obviously not there yet, but could each of us add our light to create the tipping point? While Lewis didn’t live to see it, perhaps by focusing on expanding our capacity for love, we will.What does embodying the power of astonishing love look like to you today? More loving kindness toward yourself (see Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s poem below)? Beginning to offer loving prayers for wisdom and peace for government leaders? Reaching out to connect with neighbors and friends? Let your loving heart guide you to your right next step.

May you feed the fire of the power of love, and may it transform you in wonderful ways. Then, nourished by this love, may you lavishly share it with others.

Snowy Rose Bush With Flower And Buds Winter First Snow

The Drama of Our Time

“The cultural transformation from the love of power to the power of love is the drama of our time.”
—Anodea Judith

Trained for Love

“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

With Astonishing Tenderness

When, in the middle of the night,
you wake with the certainty you’ve
done it all wrong, when you wake
and see clearly all the places you’ve failed,
in that moment, when dreams will not return,
this is the chance for your most gentle voice—
the one you reserve for those you love most—
to say to you quietly, oh sweetheart,
this is not yet the end of the story.
Sleep will not come, but somehow,
in that wide-awake moment there is peace—
the kind that does not need
everything to be right before it arrives.
The peace that comes from not fighting
what is real. The peace that rises
in the dark on its sure dark wings
and flies true with no moon, no stars.

—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, featured in The Unfolding by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer