Perfect Love in an imperfect world...

by Gwendolyn M Plano

 “The blessing of a new year is the reminder that we can begin again and again- not just in January, but whenever we need to, with each dawn, each breath.” Oriah Mountain Dreamer

When I look back through the pages of 2014, I find myself sighing deeper and deeper, the sorrows kidnapping my breaths. One by one the images confront me: the frightened faces of the young Nigerian schoolgirls, the grieving families of travelers on Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH370 and flight MH17, the tortured bodies of those afflicted with Ebola, the photos of those massacred for believing in a Christian God of love.

In the midst of these sorrows and so many more, my book was published.

It is humbling to see our projects or creations within a larger context. If we can step back from our masterpiece and risk honesty, what will we find? Did our writing or painting or acting or work assist the whole in some way? Is the collective human family enriched because of our ingenuity?

I love the notion that “the blessing of the new year is the reminder that we can begin again and again.” Like you, I have my resolutions. I will eat more vegetables, I will exercise more. And, I will undoubtedly “begin again and again.”

There is one resolution, however, which brings me back to my book. I wrote about the journey of life–through tragedy to joy. And, about midway through my book, I realized that we all share this journey. The details of my life and the details of yours may be different, but who among us is spared heartache? And, don’t we all search for joy?

We know each other through our pain and our common quest for Perfect Love.

My new resolution for 2015 is to embrace this Love in its imperfect human form—those who fill our prisons and those who attend our churches, those who carry guns and those who hold the placards, those who shout “jihad” and those who stand ready to defend. My resolution is to love our broken family, and though I am certain I will have to “begin again and again” every day, I also know that Perfect Love will lead the way.

Who or what is this Perfect Love? The answer can be found in the writings of the mystics and prophets of old, and the stories of those who have glimpsed behind the curtain of life and seen its beauty. But truly, if we quiet our minds and hearts, we know the answer. For, it is this Love that comforts us when we are locked in despair; it is this Love that holds us when no one else is there.

Letting Go into Perfect Love was written for you, but mostly, it was written for me…that I might remember who we are—brothers and sisters of one imperfect family.

May your blessings be abundant during this New Year of 2015!Often it is the deep longing to reach for the Beloved within and around me that helps me begin again. But sometimes I lose even this, cannot find the end of the thread of that longing that will take me home to the Infinite Love I have tasted in moments of grace. And then I find, to my astonishment, that even this lack, this loss of feeling and faith, when willingly experienced fully, can make me available to the longing that guides me home. is rooted in Love. Often it is the deep longing to reach for the Beloved within and around me that helps me begin again. But sometimes I lose even this, cannot find the end of the thread of that longing that will take me home to the Infinite Love I have tasted in moments of grace. And then I find, to my astonishment, that even this lack, this loss of feeling and faith, when willingly experienced fully, can make me available to the longing that guides me home.