Love Given - In action & In deed

I've been thinking a lot about the above subject - and what causes us to spontaneously reach up out of our own concerns and, true to our natures, do something loving.

Every weekend I go to the country (schedules permitting) and I sleep like a top. When I wake up, my eyes always fall on a glorius quilt that a dear friend made us for our wedding. The story of the quilt is as sweet as the woman who created it. Regan and I worked together about 8 years ago, and I knew she was a quilter, so when I was clearing out old silk ties and silk shorts that belonged to my about-to-be husband, I asked her if she would like the material. (He had moved on to wearing much more youthful attire and this lovely gracefully aged-out silk was sitting in a drawer taking up room and paying no board.) She, the great collector of wondrous objects and materials, said "You bet!" Delighted that I had found a home for this cache of silk, I promptly forgot about it after turning the shopping bag over to her.

Fast forward a few years and see me having lunch in downtown Manhattan with my old pal, Regan. The wedding is behind us and she and I are having one of our semi-annual meet-ups. Only this time, she pulls out of a shopping bag the most marvelous octagonal hand-made quilt, made of hundreds of small 8 sided little individual hand sewn pieces , bordered with beautiful hand rolled edging and fastened with small silvery palettes. It was the silk shorts and ties completely transformed and turned into a wedding quilt. It was made all the sweeter by the fact that the material had once belonged to Richard (before I even knew him) and that it had been artfully laid out and designed by my sweet Regan, as beautiful in spirit as she is in talent and appearance. A spontaneous gift born of her talent that connected all of us and continues to do so everytime I look at it.

Then last week, I thought, again, of the power of love in action and attention, when I was visiting a farm that belongs to a friend's family. On the farm, they raise sheep and in the course of the recent lambing season, a ewe had given birth to twins: one male, one female. The more dominant male was larger and, in the way of the fittest, had edged his sister out at the dinner table. So, it fell to the owner of the flock to make a critical decision and he did. He decided to hand raise the little female and she was named for the month in which she was born: May. I was lucky enough to help feed her - a chore that took all of 5 minustes as she guzzled her bottle, but it was long enough to hold her close and feel the sweetness of the fleece and her baby's belly. One tender action of attention had transformed this abandoned lamb into a lovely and joyful creature. What blessings occur all around us and how divine when we get to witness them!
Have a great weekend.