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sometimes love shows up
dressed like
this - and
this is never the
same
you hold it tightly, to make it last,
it rushes like a frenzied torrent
escaping hungry hands
you've met it many times
and didn't call it
love -
so, you walked on,
denying yourself what most
you had longed for -
was it shame, the feeling
of unworthiness for something
so precious?
you've met it many times,
and you turned the other way,
though you had ached and prayed for it...
- Why -
its beauty too much to bear -
or so you thought?
you've met this
more than you'll ever know,
when it didn't feel like love -
but it was,
when it didn't look like love,
but it was -
and you didn't have the eyes to see
the most difficult lesson
you've learned,
is you want this and fear it -
as much or more
and just when you think
you know this,
love doesn't look like love -
day can seem like night, night like day
it's already present everywhere,
even where it seems absent -
absence is filled with tenderness,
and longing is, too
so
drop all your thoughts
of how this is or must be -
drop all ideas of what it is or isn't -
stop looking, striving...
be quiet and open yourself -
let it show itself,
let it draw you to itself
in the ways and places it chooses -
stop, breathe... see!
You can't get love. No one can give you love - they can only be a means to encourage you to open yourself to the love already within you, for love awakens us to love. You can't make yourself good enough to receive it. You can't engage in spiritual exercises to make it come to you. You no more need to make love appear than help the sunlight appear in the morning skies, the waves cascade to the shores, or the leaves fall in autumn. Rather, aggressive movement toward love distances you from it. You can, however, do what you can to clear the way, as best you can. Love will do the rest. Love appears, though it has never been anywhere but here. "Appears" means you now see as for the first time. To see this is always to see as for the first time.
brian k wilcox, Seeing This, 10.18.26
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(C) brian k wilcox, 2026
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