A MARRIAGE OF LOVE

In his beautiful lyrical poem, The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran speaks of marriage as a temple where the pillars stand together, but not too near together … united in strength but each standing surely and stable on its own. And he describes love in marriage as a

“moving sea” between the “shores”of the lovers’ souls. The sea is a living being, its waters moving constantly to support the life within it. If that sea were to remain silent and unmoving, all life would die. In marriage, as in every other part of life, we cannot stagnate. We must continue to grow not only in wisdom, but in grace and in love. The flow of our lives depends on movement.

This vision of marriage - a marvelous coming together of souls -  is challenging in today’s world where too often the focus is on material well-being rather than the growth of the spirit. Yet it is possible because the love relationship between two people mirrors the relationship between God and us. The more we cultivate our relationship with Spirit, the better able we are to enter into communion with another. Turning within helps us to cultivate patience, wisdom and understanding that go beyond the surface of our bodies and its needs, beyond our egos and its needs. It aligns us with our divine purpose … our reason for being … our passion.

And discovering that, alone or in partnership, is why we are alive. Just as we each have a unique fingerprint, we each have a unique gift to cultivate and share. We discover it when we take time to explore our inner terrain and come to know what inspires us, what makes us want to get up every day and keep on keeping on even when times are hard and it seems like life is passing us by. It is passion based on spiritual understanding leading us deeper into peace, satisfaction and contentment … an understanding which welcomes learning and growing, and testing our own power and spreading our wings.

Love thrives when two people come together not in their need, but in their wholeness, in their desire to make not only their own lives better, but the lives of everyone else they touch. This kind of commitment requires a pure intent of love deeply embedded in our hearts and in our souls, an intent to not only do no harm, but to do good whenever possible … not just for self, not just for the beloved … but for everyone. Loving yourself and loving your beloved is at its best when extended to love of God’s entire creation.