“Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up.”
During the car ride in this morning, there was so much noise behind me. Three kids playing a loud game of dinosaurs meet insects meet wild imaginations. It was so loud I might have threatened to pull the car over once… okay maybe a few times. Then the loud but relatively peaceful debates over what the dinosaur and insect world looked like started to sound a bit angry. Finally, I heard one child say: “Ow! You hurt me.” Immediately, the response came “No I didn’t. I didn’t hurt him mom!” Determined to set the record straight the victim replied “Well, you hurt my feelings and those still hurt bad.”
This was the whole car ride until we got to school and I brought out one of my twin’s “Star of the Week” poster from the back of the car. Suddenly, they were all gleefully rolling down memory lane. “Remember that big pool we were at once?” and “Remember that time we ate cereal?” I mean the simplest, silliest memories were rehashed with such joy. At one point in our short walk to school, they all three grabbed a piece of the poster and walked in a line holding tight to the pictorial celebration of their short lives thus far.
Dorothy Day’s birthday was this weekend, and I love this quote I found from her. It seems relevant for all of us now. This is my prayer this morning. Maybe it’ll speak to you as well:
“Love and ever more love is the solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other’s faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light a fire in the hearts of others. And it is love that will burn out the sins and hatreds that sadden us. It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. No sacrifice and no suffering will then seem too much.”
Let us love and love some more today, even when it’s difficult. Let us light a fire in our hearts that spreads to all we encounter. ⠀
