What´s love got to do with it? What´s love but a second hand emotion? Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?

I admit it.  I have had a rough week. And when I have rough weeks, I find that I need to take a step back, inhale deeply, remember the big picture, and know that ultimately this life is not about me…Kathryn Ann(e) Strader.

With that being said, I thought I would write something in response to my seven days of Debbie Downer.  I have a good friend who got a tattoo that said LOVE with an open heart on the end of the “E”.  She wanted something on her body that counteracted her scars from a mastectomy she had done in high school. That tattoo is her response to cancer, to the thing that gets her down, the gross, unnecessary, filth that runs rampant in our world.

So here is my answer, comeback, retort, reaction to bad weeks…for all of you who have them: IT´S OK THAT SOMETIMES WE HAVE BAD DAYS, WEEKS, YEARS, BECAUSE THERE IS STILL SO MUCH POSITIVE, GOOD, AND LOVE IN THIS WORLD WORTH HAVING, FEELING, EXPERIENCING, WORKING FOR, AND TOWARDS. Sorry Tina Turner…but LOVE HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT.

No, I am not talking about Shakespeare´s Romeo and Juliet kind of love, Paula Dean´s love of butter, politicians love for lying, or ever Christian Grey´s x-rated version.  I am talking about our need to connect with other ourselves, other people and God. Connecting, being intentional with our time is how we best love…or at least in my opinion it is. 

Hafiz says it well…

Admit something: Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me." Of course you do not say this out loud, otherwise someone would call the cops.  Still though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.  Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye that is always saying, with that sweet moon language, What every other eye in this world is dying to hear? 

So does Mary Oliver (ONE OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES!)

To pay attention, that is our endless and proper work.

And the prayer of St. Francis is pretty practical is how we should be living this out:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive. 

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Despite the nasty…gang members killing an acquaintance’s son four days ago, bus entertainers invading my personal space, protesters setting fire to an American flag, and the constant smell of road kill…this has been my attempt at LOVE. 

These things need to happen in order for life down here to function:

Love myself: eating right, exercising my mind, soul and body, RESTING!

Love others: really ask people how they are doing (although few and far between), make their “problems” my own, smile, share a meal, be an exception to the “rule”…aka the typical “gringa”.

Love God:  keep looking for those Go(o) moments, take care of his creation!