Gestures of Love

Got this on a forward. this reminds me of you.

Only love is big enough to hold all the pain of this world. - sharon salzberg

I think of a gesture of love as anything we do that helps others discover their humanity. Any act where we turn to one another. Open our hearts. Extend ourselves. Listen. Any time we are patient. Curious. Quiet. Engaged. I feel we become more fully human through our generorsity, when we extend to another rather than withdraw into ourselves. Conversation does this - it requires that we extend ourselves, that we open our minds and hearts a bit more, that we turn to someone, curious about how they live their life.

I learned this listening to Bernie Glassman describe a meeting between two homeless men. One was a "mole person." He lived underground in New York City, with thousands of other homeless people who never came to the streets. The other man lived in city parks. Bernie described his delight when the two reclusive and withdrawn men began talking to each other. A woman questioned whether there was any value in this conversation-the men seemingly had spoken more lies than truth. Bernie quickly replied: "It doesn't matter what they were saying. They were talking to each other."

I think about how much courage it took for those two frightened men to speak. Bernie knew the courage of their actions, the first tentative extension out from their painful, private experience. He wasn't concerned with their words. (And he knew that if they kept talking, they'd gradually become more truthful-for this is what always happens.)

Paulo freire described love as "an act of courage, not of fear." When we find the courage to approach those we fear, that is a gesture of love.

-Margaret Wheatley