Love into Solitude or Community?

The following was composed about half a year after my awakening in the struggle to work out the complexities of love.

“Love the Lord your God,”

and we’re drawn to solitude

“Love your neighbor,”

and we’re drawn to community

“Love others as yourself,”

and we’re drawn back into solitude

Solitude or community?

How do we find them both?

Must loving our neighbor

always draw us into community?

Or, can it also draw us into solitude,

into prayer,

for neighbor to discover on his own?

Loving neighbor is a tricky mystery

Love guides into wholeness

Wholeness means surgery

But neighbor refuses surgery

and wants a drug

Love doesn’t give drugs

so we offer surgery

and neighbor cries,

“You don’t love me!

Love doesn’t hurt like that!”

Oh, but love hurts

Love is the supreme hurt

December 3, 2005

(c) 2005 by karina.  All rights reserved.  Please use with permission by the author.