How do we come to realize love? By surrendering to life just as it is. Gradually our eyes open.

I think of a good friend who buried her young son. Years later someone asked her if she felt that he had been cheated by life because his years were few. Her response was striking. “I don’t think in those terms,” she replied thoughtfully. “The answer is that I don’t know. I don’t know what his life should have been. I realize today that his soul had its own terms with life. This had nothing to do with me.”

I watched her as she spoke. She was serene and strong. She went on. “But I got to participate for a while in the journey of that soul. For that I am unspeakably grateful.”

There was nothing to say in response to her words. The love moving through them was its own flame.

from Waking Up to This Day