Had I Truly Loved? Reflections During Winter Storm

Sometimes during certain seasons, especially winter, one has time to reflect upon life and wonder. To live this life truly loving others is truly living this life, but had we truly loved?

"If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,” wrote the apostle Paul, “and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give it all away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

(1 Cor.13:2-3 ESV)

Here we all are living this life. A beautiful gift we have been given indeed. We can truly try our best to do whatever it is our heart desires or to be the person we so choose to be in this life. It may be that we are so determined and go through this life showing such determination and restraint to the uttermost, even though giving up much that is good for what we perceive as better. Better for whom?

We have but one life here on this temporal world to live, laugh, experience and to love. Once we have lived our lives and in looking back at all that we have done, if we are unable to know without a doubt that we have truly loved, then it would have been a life wasted, would it not?

It is never too late to truly love. However, we do not want to wait (speaking of winter here) until the winter of our lives is at hand, and the last of the vivid leaves have fallen, to love.

A couple of weeks ago, as the deep South became a winter wonderland of snow and ice, not its norm, it was during those quiescent days of winter, when we were literally unable to leave our home for three days, I found myself in deep reflection about life while peering out at the barren trees and snow-covered hills.

What a beautiful sight to behold, as our little world down here became dormant, so quiet and still. As each day passed, it was getting colder. I could feel the cold creeping across the hills into the town and out through farming country. What I realized during those three days of being forced to slow down our normal life of going and trying, is just that …attempting to live that life we have envisioned in our minds, it just may be possible in doing so that we wake up one day feeling disconnected to those we are meant to love.

Back when, it was decided for us when it was time to slow down a bit of our labor, forced by the earth itself. Nowadays, however, most live in the cities or suburbs and do not work the land. Therefore, we are now able to work around the clock from anywhere within the blue glow of the screen. Many of us do this while attempting to lead a fulfilling life.

Peering out onto the stillness of winter, I reflected on the past weeks and months. I was amazed at how full they had been with all kinds of things, both worthwhile and not. I thought of the hours I spent running errands, chasing grandchildren, working the job and, yes, sadly, scrolling through photos and articles on my Smartphone. That is when it hit me …had I loved?

“Touched by your goodness, I am like that grand piano we found one night on Willoughby that someone had smashed and somehow heaved through an open window.

And you might think by this I mean I’m broken or abandoned, or unloved. Truth is, I don’t know exactly what I am, any more than the wreckage in the alley knows it’s a piano, filling with trash and yellow leaves.

Maybe I’m all that’s left of what I was. But touching me, I know, you are the good breeze blowing across its rusted strings.

What would you call that feeling when the wood, even with its cracked harp, starts to sing?”

In our daily toil of attempting to live that life we have envisioned in our minds, can cause us to forget to love the people God has given to us to love and to be loved by. He places them in our lives so that we might find hope, even in all of the chaos of life, and recall who we really are.

Maybe we do not always know who we are or where we ought to be, but when we remain present in our relationships and true to the love we are called, just maybe we will hear the beautiful music of love rising above all of the chaos.

In reading the poem here, the people we love “are the good breeze blowing across its rusted strings.” Maybe we might even be able to ask with the poet, “What would you call that feeling when the wood, even with its cracked harp, starts to sing?”

While driving around my neighborhood and taking the photos above, I was and am astonished at just how fast new life forges from the earth, even after being covered in snow and ice just a couple of weeks ago.

I am reminded that no matter what, life is meant to go on for now. The new life I have seen emerging from the frozen ground gives me hope as to beginning anew in our relationships with one another.

Remember to love those who God has given you to love, and please allow yourself to be loved by them too. In doing so, then when the winter of our lives is truly at hand, we can know without a doubt, we had loved.

© Copyright Faith Reaper, March 13, 2014

"For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away."