Love Stands Watch
By Paula D’Arcy
Three years ago in the library of a rural town in East Texas, several women sat around a table to talk with me about my book, Stars at Night. They were a book club but equally a grief circle. I said a few words about the book and my own experience with grief and then listened to their stories. Their lives represented multiple ways the human heart can break. After the meeting, one of the women invited me to her home for lunch which included driving through hayfields in her ATV and her teaching me about the importance of knowing when the grain is ready for harvest. I have never been taken to lunch in such a way. It was wonderful! Back in my own home that evening I could still feel the magic of riding through the hayfield, surrounded by its sight and smell.
I had told the women about an inner love that exceeds anything we will ever go through. This love moves invisibly within our circumstances, in ordinary times and during times of challenge or deep loss. A mentor once told me, “Take this love as far as you can in your lifetime.” Then he paused for a long while before adding, “There’s no time to waste, although you wouldn’t always know it, watching our lives.” When I think of those women today, I hope they have not wasted any time. I hope they have come to realize that love stands watch in the time of harvesting the hay, when stars fill the night sky, and in our darkest hours. We don’t walk through anything alone.
Join us for a weekend retreat from June 20-22 on “Living Beyond the Love You Learned” with speaker and best-selling author Paula D’Arcy. Overnight and commuter options are available.
https://bonsecoursrcc.org/event/living-beyond-the-love-you-learned/