June 1, 2017

Dear One,
 
When you receive this Love Letter, I will have already celebrated my 84th birthday, and will have attended my youngest grand daughter's graduation from New Your University Graduate School of Social Work.
I see this as a stunning journey, a lifetime celebrated with love.

My father graduated from N.Y.U. in 1925, I graduated from the School of Education in 1953, my brother also graduated in 1962.  I graduated from graduate school in '79 and now Samantha is graduating with honors this year.

Sitting in this present moment I am grateful. My life has been very good. The lessons have been profound. There is a line of poetry from Kabir:

"Love can only be found where we are.
Love is nearer than near."

I have been told that what we teach is what we need to learn.  I call myself "A Reminder."
The Course I teach is a Master's Class in Love. The song that is the
basis for this curriculum is, "Dance Me To The End Of Love" by Leonard Cohen. 
I love love. I loved to love, and I love to be loved.
I have always wanted to open my heart beyond the whispering of fear. I always knew that love is an active and conscious choice, it is more than a feeling.
I believe that I have been able to transform all (what I consider) the sorrows of my life into compassion.
Having opened to the pain of the death of my husband, and to the death of my grand daughter's partner, I have allowed myself to be deeply touched by my pain and by the pain of others. This is compassion.

So what is love then?
I was given this text (which is a letter from St. Paul to the Corinthians) at Adriano's memorial:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.  It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.   Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain; faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."

On this beautifully clear and sunny day, I understand and have felt this teaching finally with my heart.

I am grateful for every event in my life.

Join me in this prayer:

Dear G-d,
I offer my gratitude for the family and friends I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for those who have chosen to walk with me in this lifetime.
I offer my gratitude to my soul's courage for choosing to make itself known.
I offer my gratitude to my personality for its devotion and commitment to practice.
I offer my gratitude that I realized in this life that love is a choice and more than a feeling.
I offer my gratitude for the life I have chosen.

Be well, be blessed and remember: "It is love alone that lasts".

Barbara

Please listen to the song:
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing