Sunday, May 22, 2011

Something about love

I do mean the real thing, of course. Real love - not play love:
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
-- Thomas Merton

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for this posting. I find it provocative and true. One word that strikes me is "beginning" and it occurs to me that I am beginning over and over again with those I love. Another thought is that we must love ourselves in order to love others, so we must let ourselves be ourselves.

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  2. I like your point about letting ourselves be ourselves, Clarence. Good catch on that one.

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  3. Anonymous2:39 PM

    I just love the way Thomas Merton writes...such clarity and economy of words coupled with such great teachings...
    annie c

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  4. We have to be grown-up and self-accepting to get to this beginning. This kind of love is wonderful, when we find it; and I'm blessed enough to have found it in the last few years.

    I'm reading Thich Naht Hahn's True Love, which helps me to learn how to give love well.

    Thanks, Ellie!

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