Christmastide Day 5: December 29th
The Call of Love

Can I face this illness in such a way that God breaks through?
Can I stand by this child, this spouse, this friend and, because of that choice, develop an intimacy with God?
Can I endure this season of loss, confusion, or disappointment --- and emerge in a larger place?
Can I let life deepen my spirit?
Can I embrace happiness and not get lost in the periphery?
Can I move toward the deeper love?

In a single two-year period, I moved across the country twice. On the return trip I was struck by traveling on the same road, moving in the opposite direction. I thought about places where I had been and asked myself, am I willing to take the one journey I alone can take?

I thought of all the "reasons" I had moved. There are always reasons: searching for happiness, seeking security, building things, creating, starting new employment, forging new relationships. But isn't the real invitation from our own soul, inviting us in every situation to go deeper and to be more authentic? To get past the surface of things to the place where we might finally allow something extraordinary to materialize in our lives?

I don't think love is trying to "change" us. It's evoking something already within us and reaching through our precise experiences to bring it alive.

Am I willing to know the demands of this love? In the end, no one can protect me from having to decide.


by Paula D'Arcy, Redbird Foundation
from the book: Daybreaks