In the wide variety of concerts I’ve attended I’d be hard pressed to pick whose was greatest
because every show had a magic all its own…Willie Nelson’s was the latest.
I’ve been to concerts in houses, in schools, in stadiums…in museums surrounded by glass.
We saw Willie on a cool Florida evening under the stars while seated on a blanket in the grass
As Willie and his band played with Jupiter watching and listening from above…
I thought how music is a universal language…how it communicated through love.
At a concert when the music and the lyrics begin to fill the air
A change comes over anyone who happens to be there.
We live in a world divided…with evil forces tearing us apart
but when the band begins to play it’s only love that fills our hearts.
I’m not sure how it happens…how the music gets it done…
but when the notes are flowing…for a short while…we are not divided
we are one.
During the hours of the concert….everybody gets along
we listen…we stand…we dance together…we raise our voices and sing along.
Every now and then we turn to one another…just to share a nod…a word…a smile
glad we’re all together…that we chose to linger here a while.
My words could never capture the magic of these moments…but…you know what…I don’t care.
I just know life is so much more beautiful…so much more fun and so much more peaceful
when music fills the air.
So thank you Willie…and thank your band…for making a career
of creating music that speaks the language…
We all long so desperately to hear.
I love love!
I love how its boundaries are limitless.
I love how it always has more lessons to teach.
I love that no matter how much we love…
inside our hearts…there is always more love within reach.
I like to imagine there is this river of love flowing through us
carrying love on the grandest scale.
ready to ferry us wherever our love takes us…
waiting for us to set sail.
This river has endless tributaries…
infinite branches that never end’
carrying us to everyone and everything on Earth
beginning with our family and friends.
But its rivulets also extend to food and drink…
to books and movies
to music and dance and art…
It’s amazing when you think about it…
how much love is in our heart.
Since this river is never ending…
up ahead we’ll find new channels and creeks and streams.
We’ll meet new people and places and things to love
fueled by our hopes and our wishes and dreams.
Our boat is moored down by the river…
On it…everything we need to survive is stored….
riding our river of love is easy…
all you have to do…is climb aboard.
Today I’m thankful for love, and gardens and libraries
for many philosophers and experts have agreed…
If you have
love,
a garden
and a library…
you have everything you need.
The teacher, long retired, ran across a copy of the only poem she ever saved
which immediately caused her to reminisce….
For in all her years of teaching she’d never read a poem…as beautiful as this.
“Class,” she remembers saying with a smile. “I want you to write a love poem.”
She assumed this was easy and every student would understand….
until one student in the middle of class timidly raised her hand.
“My dad was killed by a bomb in the war.” she said.“I remember the exact date."
“How am I to write about love when I’m filled with so much hate?”
The teacher had anticipated many questions…but this one…she never guessed…
She walked over, put her arms around her student…and hugged her to her chest.
“When hate is all around us”, she said…”when bombs are dropping from above…
that is the time we must fight hate…and search for words of love.”
“Look into your heart.” she said, ‘words of love are waiting there
words of love you will discover…words of love you’ll want to share.”
She wasn’t sure what to expect until that night at home
when she read this young girl’s assignment entitled…
This Is My Love Poem
My dad used to talk about love…before he turned off my light…
He said love is a wonderful way to start the day…and the only way to say goodnight.
So I will try everyday to think in words of love…no matter what my fate
hoping the words of love I find…will overcome my hate…
I hope someday to discover within my heart the words I’m searching for…
hate has won this latest battle…but I won't let it win the war.
Perhaps when words of love, instead of bombs, are falling from the sky
then love will finally vanquish hate…and no more Dads will have to die.
Hate has left me with a scar and my dreams shall forever now be haunted…
but I will l do my best to look for love, because…
that’s what my dad would have wanted.
Today I’m thankful for love….
Understanding it’s not just the hugging, the holding hands the kissing…
It’s when a person gives you a piece to the puzzle of your life
you never knew was missing.
“Mom! You say you love me when you kiss my head as you tuck me into bed.
It’s something every night I’ve heard.
I was just wondering….how do you know you love somebody?
What’s the meaning of that word?”
“Love is not easy to explain.” She said. “It arrives at it’s own time and pace.
It’s an invisible feeling that immediately fills your heart…
and shows up on your face.”
“I think love is always out there searching for us…wherever we choose to go.
The best guidance I can give you is…when she finds you…you will know.”
“And when it comes to loving you…it’s something I just knew.
I felt love enter into my heart with my first thought of you.”
There is one more curiosity about love…one more thing I’d like to say…
I’m not sure how it works…but it grows stronger every day.”
He asked his dad the next night…his answers were similar…
It’s as if they had it planned.
Which doesn’t matter because he found both parents definition difficult to understand.
Both his mom and dad said he’d understand one day…
That perhaps at that time he was too small…
Which only made him wonder if his parents understood love at all.
Until the day he saw her…and felt his heart begin to fill
and a smile show up on his face.
And everything his parents said…fell beautifully into place.
Yes, he used to wonder about love…why it’s so difficult to explain…
But now…just as his parents did all those years before…
When he looks at his wife and family…he doesn’t wonder anymore.
I am in awe of silence…in her perplexity…
I find both a beauty and a mystery in her tranquility.
Have you ever sat in silence with someone you love…
hoping that silent moment would never end?
It is in moments such as these when silence is our friend.
Have you ever stood hypnotized in the midst of a silent snow?
or watched clouds silently changing shape as they’ve drifted to and fro?
Have you ever felt the awkward silence that accompanies a first date?
or tiptoed through the silence when you arrived home a little late?
And there is a type of silence no one should ever miss…
The silence one experiences…the moment…just before a kiss.
In the aftermath of a death, the ultimate silent tragedy,
have you ever felt the silence become your enemy?
Sadness arrives in silence, for there is a silent moment when...
you realize you will never see or hear or touch that person you loved…again.
And even though they may be gone…it matters not how many years
it is in the silence of our loneliness where we cry our deepest tears?
But silence doesn’t stay our enemy for long…she soon reminds us she’s our friend
for it is in the silence of our slumber…when our heart begins to mend.
And soon we’re comfortable again in silence…content…because we know
it’s in the silence of the evening when trees begin to grow?
It’s in the silence of the morning that the flowers create their blooms
and the miracle of life begins in the silence of a womb.
So the next time you’re sitting quietly with the one you love
or on a silent stroll….
remind yourself where love begins…
in the silence of your soul.
Today I’m thankful for the ability to fall in love..
for this simple reason why…
The moment we fall in love…
Is the moment…our heart learns it can fly.
Today I’m thankful for love
And if you haven’t already found it…
this wish I have for you…
That the day you do find true love
is the same day true love finds you…