Not Long to Love, Episode 286

We really don’t have long. And the world keeps telling us that the answer to that is to hurry. But our hurry and fearfulness, our sense that we always have to be in control, distracted and in action, obscures a different kind of attention that is greatly needed in the world - the kind of attention we would call ‘love’.

So what becomes possible when we turn ourselves truthfully to the world with the attention of love? Not a syrupy or shallow love, but a love that’s courageous enough to receive the world and to care for it in a much deeper way than our hurried minds make possible?

This week's Turning Towards Life is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.

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We Have Not Long to Love

We have not long to love.
Light does not stay.
The tender things are those
we fold away.
Coarse fabrics are the ones
for common wear.
In silence I have watched you
comb your hair.
Intimate the silence,
dim and warm.
I could but did not, reach
to touch your arm.
I could, but do not, break
that which is still.
(Almost the faintest whisper
would be shrill.)
So moments pass as though
they wished to stay.
We have not long to love.
A night. A day...

Tennessee Williams


Photo by Jonatan Pie on Unsplash

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