Transcript for February 28, 2010 by Bob Kleinheksel

Dear people, born from the galaxy, citizens of life: you and we are the breath, voice and hands of the infinite. We get together again – individuals forming rich and diverse community. Distinction and commonality; unity without uniformity and the need to conform. Let us dwell in responsible and enjoyable freedom now as we sit, pause, pray, doze and meditate. We are one, gathering together to be inspired anew….to transform individually, relationally, and then to give abundantly to this world in service and soulfulness.

The snow dazzles and frustrates again. Just when we thought of March lilies popping and proclaiming their defiance of cold and the end of winter, we become shrouded in white. Some welcome it again; others can hardly stand it. We face the unpredictable and varied patterns around; we accept the beauty. So, too, do we recognize our impatience for a new season –the end of shovels and sniffles.

Unclenched we are, letting go of tension, grudges, negativity…for life is too short to harbor what creases our worried brow; life is too full of beauty, love and possibility to be situated in chronic unhappiness. Our footsteps, our song, our thoughts, our words and actions would be love-tinged… for we promote the end of divisions, the end of fear, the continuance of togetherness even through conflict and disagreement. Let us abide with each other in community, exploring the best of human expression and service and the riches of lived-out values that enhance all of loving and relating.

We look strait into ourselves – as down the site of a rifle barrel – to evaluate our capacity to give and receive love. And how is love understood? May it be a variety of states, responses, commitments, actions and attitudes as we move more fully into life. Is love a cat with claws with wild mate screams in the night? A tug at the heart that comes with costs? Is it laced with varied vocabulary as smooth as violins – or as rough as a sea tempest? Is it interdependency as rain and dry roots find each other? Let us consider the depths, the mystery and complexity…the simplicity of love. And, through it all, may we dwell in a fearless state due to love’s visitation upon us, the freedom, security, acceptance and delight of it all.

Now we face the broad audience of all humankind. It awaits us in the late morning hour. We move beyond brick walls to tend to our neighbors; to contact a friend, to reconcile with a family member; to give spiritual direction of some kind; we read up on and respond to international realities of blood and grief, a thousandth soldier killed in Afghanistan, or Palestinians and Israelis and our own government ignoring or ignorant of achievable possibilities . We give nod to the breakthroughs, the love poured out yet in Haiti, the needs being met by unlikely sources. We remember the world through our next cup of java…or the ham on rye we eat at lunch…for we are all connected: In thoughts, actions, finances, the benign intentions matched with authentic will and follow through.

It is time for heartbreaks…and yet a time for possibility, for new growth and for love to be known, expressed; for it to exhilarate, to comfort, to accept and to confound. Maybe love is the answer; maybe love is all we need; maybe love is a battlefield. Through it all, we get and stay together in love.