PEBBLE
I want the world to sing in our native tongue
Maybe we could learn to sing along
To find a way to use our lungs for love and not the shadows…
…Love is a language, Love is your native tongue.
~Brent Kutzle / Jonathan Mark Foreman / Timothy David Foreman
shared by Janelle in Cedar Falls, IA via Switchfoot’s Native Tongue
BOULDER
The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.
~James Baldwin, shared by Kelly in New Hampshire AND Sara in Wisconsin
PONDER
Well, we’ve arrived at the second Monday in February, which means it’s time for our annual love-themed Ripples. (You can peek here for our compendium of lovely quotations we’ve shared over the past 26 years).
I’m really digging how today’s pebble is inviting us to speak the language of love as our Native Tongue while James Baldwin’s wisdom encourages us to take action, reflecting the love we encounter and the love we long to receive.
Whether you’re excited about Valentines Day or roll your eyes at it, let’s embrace this week as an opportunity to infuse a little more kindness, compassion, and generosity into our words and actions. Whether it is directed inwardly toward yourself, or outwardly towards others, I hope you’ll create and/or seize opportunities to speak love, to practice love, and to be love.
The world seems to long for love these days, and I’m certain it is ready to mirror and magnify any scraps we can offer up.
Peace & Love to you,
Paul
P.S. If you’re curious to apply all of this to the current State of Things, Leah Pearlman’s recent post really resonated with me.
