a simple guide to love

You can love anyone
if you really look at them.
Notice the delicacy
of their eyelids
the unique color
and texture
of their skin.
Listen
to the rhythm
of their breath,
hear the longings
of their heart.
Study them
like a poem
or painting.
Look long
enough to see
the layers and lines,
crevices and curves.
Human-beings are
breath-taking works of art.
Fleshy machines, both
beautiful and complicated.
When you really look
how could you not
fall in love?

the revealing.

"And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed." -Genesis 2:25

I love the idea that in the beginning we were naked and unencumbered before God. For me part of the Christian life, particularly in the wilderness season of Lent, is about dismantling the careful walls and masks we've created to protect ourselves. Allowing ourselves to be seen by the Holy and by one another can be terrifying and painful. Discipleship and authentic relationships demand that we let our scars, our limitations and our flaws show. The divine challenges us to stop playing the game of proving ourselves and pretending. We are invited to vulnerability, intimacy, wildness and freedom. 


The Revealing
It hurts--
this uncovering
this laying bare.
It would be easier
to stay contained,
comfortably covered.
But piece
by jagged piece,
you reveal me.
You ask me
to be seen.
You uncover all
I prefer to keep veiled.
I can almost hear
you greet my
vulnerable form:
There you are, darling.
Aren't you beautiful?