DECEMBER 27
Love is the heartbeat of all life.
—PARAMAHANSA
YOGANANDAWe feel it in ourselves—this mysterious generative force
that enables us to reach out to the stranger in need, as well
as to those on whom we depend to nourish and share our
lives. Our need to love others is as constant as the beating
of our hearts. So we build a network of life support and life
enhancement, and much of the meaning of our lives plays
itself out along that network.
Then one of the main components of the network is taken
from us. It throws our lives for a loop. The whole system is
in disarray.
But the energy is still there. Love is not a finite, limited
quality, any more than the energy set loose in creation can
be fully contained, sealed, or spent.
The love we lavished on the one who is gone continues
to move toward that person. But in our sorrow love seems
to extend itself, and in tenderhearted compassion we recog-
nize how bound together we all are—life to life, fragment
to fragment, love to love.
The love that bound me to the departed binds us all.