The Season of Love

The annual day of hearts, flowers, cards, and candy has come and gone. Yes, I’m talking about Valentine’s Day. If our hearts were a garden of love with a major bloom only once a year, gardeners would label it an annual.  

I do enjoy annuals, but I’m more satisfied with perennials. In the floral world, they are considered enduring, perpetual, and sustained.

Perennial love is more than a feeling. We all know feelings come and go. That means there’s always a point of decision. If this love is to continue, how much am I willing to give of myself to help it grow for, and with, another person in my life?

It’s not only a question for lovers, parents face the same issue. Like my friend used to say, “Kids! They seem like such a good idea at the time.” Then the baby arrives and life is turned upside down. Nothing is ever the same and parental love has to choose to flex and grow.

If love were an elevator, it would take you to many floors. One floor would be passionate, physical love, not necessarily ending in marriage. Love requiring commitment would be found on another floor.

Loyalty, expressed in familial love, is one for all and all for one. Platonic love is real, too, a friendly desire for another’s best with no sexual involvement at all.

1 Corinthians 13 is considered The Love Chapter. Verses three through eight explain how we can choose to love through our actions. Paul wrote that faith, hope, and love abide (or endure), but the greatest of these is love!

On that note, think about your life as you read my short poem about love.

 WHAT IS LOVE?

By Darlis Sailors

LOVE is fragile, like a flower in bloom.

Nurture it carefully; let it grow.

LOVE is challenging, like a trail in the woods.

Explore it slowly; discover its joy.

LOVE is valuable, worth effort and time.

Invest it thoughtfully; reap the rewards.

LOVE is emotional, up, down, twirled around.

Buckle your seatbelt; risk the ride.

LOVE is sharing both laughter and tears.

Open your heart; widen your world.

(DS, 2018)

Chief Critic

 

A friend and I were talking this week about being critical. I’ll share the story with you that I shared with her.

While growing up, my crippled grandmother lived with us. She walked with a cane and one shoe was built up about four inches to accommodate several hip fractures. Her bones were brittle and her broken arms in younger years had not healed correctly.

She also had dementia. I remember being accused of things I didn’t do, but I also remember her high-pitched shaky voice breaking out in a hymn now and then.

I had to share a room with her till I was thirteen. That’s when mom finally told her sister out west it was her turn to take Grandma in.

When Grandma was gone, I didn’t miss her a bit. I was simply glad she was out of my life. Even when she died a few years later, I didn’t shed a tear; however, a few months ago a strange thing happened.

I was relaxing in my living room when I felt God say, “You misjudged your grandmother.” Along with this impression came tears. I could not believe that after decades had passed, God would even care about this!

I shared it with one of my brothers a few weeks ago and tears came again, so I knew I wasn’t making this up. I did take God’s warning to heart, however, and asked Him to forgive me and help me not to jump to conclusions about people.

It’s so easy to be a critic. I’m thinking of the old adage don’t judge a man till you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins. After expressing a critical opinion have you ever had someone remark with a sneer, “Who died and made YOU Chief?”

I think in today’s world of E-communication, there is an overabundance of self-appointed chiefs---critics who indulge in prickly fault-finding and censure according to their own set of values. It’s never a level playing field, and let’s remember self-indulgence indicates a lack of self-control.

Words matter, whether spoken or written. By indulging a whim for criticism, we are destroying happiness, our own and that of others. Proverbs 15:23 in The Message Bible says it this way:  Congenial conversation---what a pleasure! The right word at the right time---beautiful!  

The next time you appoint yourself Chief Critic, stop and ask yourself: WHY do I want to be so critical? Give yourself an honest answer. You CAN change, you know.   

 

We Live in an Awesome World

Reading is a hobby of mine. When my brother brings me magazines, one of my favorites is a bimonthly publication by The Archaeological Institute of America. I generally read articles as I enjoy my lunch.

This week I was fascinated by explanations and photos of a *3,500-year-old ritual pool found in northern Italy.

Just imagine a pool roughly 40 feet long, 23 feet wide, and at least 16 feet deep. Now can you picture it constructed of wooden poles and interlocking boards?

“The Noceto pool is unique in Italy---it’s unique in the world,” says Zerboni.** “Building such a structure implies very careful planning, coordinating the work of many people, and a very clear architectural plan. We don’t expect to find such majestic structures from prehistory.”

Archeology is just one of many types of study which add color and knowledge to our world. Mankind has learned about his world, creatively made adjustments necessary to live in it more comfortably, and passed on knowledge from generation to generation.

I’m learning to Google my questions, so I typed in a scientific study name list and was rewarded with about 25 main categories and way too many sub-categories to count. The site simply said, “from sources across the web.”

I was familiar with major classes of study such as Biology, Physics, Zoology, Geology, Anthropology, Astronomy, Psychology, and Anatomy. People have earned degrees and spent a lifetime of study and research in many of these.

Lesser known to me, but important in their own right, were Physics, Chemistry, Genetics, Microbiology, Bacteriology, Biotechnology, and Embryology.

We live in an awesome world. Can you imagine where we’d be without this information? God even put mankind in charge of the sea, land, and air, so it's no wonder we have pursued knowledge (Genesis Chapter One, Verses 26-28 NIV).

Creation information can be found in Job---Chapters 38 and 39. God begins a conversation by saying, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

What follows are colorful explanations of the sea, sky, wild animals, horses and, birds. Interesting reading. Check it out sometime soon.

*Italian Master Builders, Daniel Weiss, ARCHAEOLOGY, A Publication of the Archaeological Institute of America, November/December 2021, pp. 38-41.

**Quote by Andrea Zerboni, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Milan, p. 38.