What's Love Got To Do With It...?

[cedar_grove]

My lover's skin glows like the finest marble,
and I burn to touch it, I burn with the teasing
dance of her glances, I am no fire, I am aflame,
I cannot think of anything but love.

Venus has abandoned her island shrine at Cypress
to live within my heart. The goddess will hear nothing
but songs of love now, she will endure no music to stir
the blood toward war, adventure, or anything but love.

Friends, build a green altar right here, and lay me down
upon it. Place sacred branches all around my body,
and bowls of wine, and wands of incense. I am already
a victim of love, a sacrifice to Venus. Now let her hear
my plea!

--Horace

the love of parents for children, teachers for students, friends for each other - these relationships are not just human connections. They participate in and reflect the great network of connectedness that is our magnificent universe.

When is love most on our minds? This question came to the forefront of my thoughts during the meditation on today's text and I wondered why. Is love most on our minds when we are together with those we love (those many different loving relationships as mentioned above); when we are apart; when we feel, or do not feel the love? Why has it been so strong in my thoughts and feelings and awareness, especially of late? The only answer I can come to is that just lately, I haven't been feeling the love.

Let me clarrify that right away, because talking about the love of the people around me - students and colleagues - and not of those further away from me, Mir and my parents, whose love sustains me... keeps me whole, (although that said, Mum in her usual blunt way told me yesterday to basically 'suck it up' when I expressed that I had had a bad day).

Of course, as in anything there are a few exceptions to this, the few student who always make me feel valued, respected and loved - colleagues who do the same... even the words of a neighbor unexpectedly offering, 'SabaH al Xeer' (Good morning) as I was coming out of the apartment block - though I don't know why that should have added to my feeling grounded, loved and respected - valued as a person, since I have no real relationship with this person in any sense of the word. He's a neighbor, sure, by virtue of living in the same apartment block - but I don't know him from Adam.

It must all then, be in that connection to the Universe, feeling valued makes us feel connected, makes us feel sacred; divine?

Knowing how low I personally feel when I don't have that kind of 'love' coming into my life, and knowing and wanting to live by giving what you receive - (though I confess to being bad at that) - I try to make sure I'm there for people, accessible to people, (without getting pulled into their personal dramas - which is admittedly hard sometimes), to be a sounding board, so that people feel valued and listened to - sothat people feel loved.

I felt loved today when some of my children's parents asked about the rats. I regularly talk to the children about them (especially Zenny, because we wrote about him in a story, but the others too), and they are obviously going home and talking to their parents about our pet rats. So when the parents came in for parent day today, some of them asked. It made me feel good - like they cared. That's one thing that is very different over here from over in the UK. The parents are very much more involved - maybe because they're paying (but that's being a bit cynical), but the communication between parents and teachers gets to feel more like a personal relationship after a while... like the way you see teachers were a part of the family way back in the day. I like that. But maybe that's just another reflection of my need to be needed and loved and valued.