for Jude Jordan Kalush, who asked the question
All day, I replay these words:
Is this the path of love?
I think of them as I rise, as
I wake my children, as I wash dishes,
as I drive too close behind the slow
blue Subaru, Is this the path of love?
Think of these words as I stand in line
at the grocery store,
think of them as I sit on the couch
with my daughter. Amazing how
quickly six words become compass,
the new lens through which to see myself
in the world. I notice what the question is not.
Not, “Is this right?” Not,
“Is this wrong?” It just longs to know
how the action of existence
links us to the path of love.
And is it this? Is it this? All day,
I let myself be led by the question.
All day I let myself not be too certain
of the answer. Is it this?
Is this the path of love? I ask
as I wait for the next word to come.
*
this poem is published in The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection & Joy, edited by James Crews (Storey Publishing, 2022)
And it is, in some way, already on the path to love, when we ask … 🙂
i think you’re right … the asking itself is an important part of the process
[…] with gratitude to Jude Jordan Kalush and Joi Sharp And here I thought the path of lovewould look like love. Like kindness.Like generosity. Like gentleness. Instead it looks like me being botheredby the sound of loud chewing. Mewanting praise. Me needing to feel loved. Hello me. How elegantly lovehas arranged for me to meetall the parts of me that would stand in love’s way. How easilyit shows me I’ve thought of loveas a destination. But here is love with no expectation. Here is lovewith no name, no locus. Hereis love with no face, no shape, no promise, no vow, no hope.Here is love as itself, surgingand flowing, love as itself insisting on love, love as itself erodingall those layers of me that stillthink they know something about love (and love holds me while I railand love throws me back in the streamand love is what is still here when I am not).*If you are looking for the poem that Tara Brach read in her meditation, it is called “The Question” and you can find it here […]
Whew! Such poetry that moves me in such a good way. Thank you Megwiich
Thank you so much! I know how much it shifted me the first time my friend Jude told me that question–it changed everything–not the facts themselves but how I met them.
This is absolutely beautiful…and brilliant…and transformative…and alive…and everything! Thank you for putting this out into the world.
what a beautiful response! Thank you for the exuberance and thoughtfulness–I am grateful
I want to have this tattooed on my hand (if it were on my forehead I couldn’t see it). What a beautiful way to show us the path.
Oh Cassie, you made me smile–yes–on the hand or wrist–or even in the heart. It’s such a beautiful question, given to me by my friend Jude–what a gift it has been.
[…] Can love and abundance be the path? […]