It is a dance, of course.

If you are new at it, sometimes you misstep. Sometimes you fumble. Sometimes your grasp is too hard, sometimes you don’t know where to put your hands. Sometimes you are completely lost, do I lead? Do I follow? Do I look stupid now?

Sometimes you fall out of rhythm, and you shuffle about, desperately trying to get back in pace. An apologetic look – you scrutinize her face to see if she hates you now.

***

Love, if you envelope yourself with it, expands.

Its not something you give away, not really. Its something you weave and wrap around you, and the objects of your affection get wrapped up in its warmth.

Parched, I’ve been there before. I still am sometimes. That is the thirsty drink when I reach the water brook, that is the selfishness that absorbs, takes to feel whole. It is the thorn you sharpen on your sides to pain those around you. Daggers of words.

This is the place for a broken heart. To break open the shell of your dark hollow, to break it apart. And when you reach the point of unbearable pain, you find you have stretched. You find your capacity to accept has grown, your capacity to embrace, to want nothing more.

This is the love that expands. Seek nothing, do nothing, think nothing, try nothing. Do not take, do not manipulate, do not set the frames. Just be. Love was the heart of the universe, whole and unchangeable, long before any of these. It was the raw material from which all that is good in the world was formed. Its riches have sustained us for infinity. It is eternal – we merely bend to its light, become self-less, transparent, or we stand in its way.