"Love is a verb, not a noun. Love is not trying to catch others, as if to frame them and hang them on the wall. Love never comes to a full stop, and it is not a one time act. It is an appreciation of a person, moment to moment. It is a stream of mutually shared moments. Love brings us into the moment and quiets our minds. It gets us out of our heads. Love is not about possessing someone, but about sharing moments together and making the most out of them. Love is not about impressing the other person with how perfect you are, but about allowing them to see your vulnerable and human side. Love reminds us that life is truly a sacred thing, and not merely a weary struggle for survival."
I know you wrote this Brock. This morning I asked my roommate where my parsley plant was. My roommate threw it out with another dying herb. Since I can't always be there to water them one of them did not survive. Yet I found the parsley plant still in the waste paper basket and revived it. I was happy I caught 3 squirrels in the cross space of the house before they were killed also.
It reminded me of the story that Anandamoy told about the 'Ugly Desert bush'. He was in the desert cleaning the yard and saw an ugly desert bush. He started chopping at it and Yogananda, picking up his thoughts, ran to the side of the building where he was at and yelled from a distance. "Is it dead? Is it dead?" Reaching Anandamoy he said no "You hurt it and you knew you hurt it. It will live just don't hurt it any more." He said 'I was just paralyzed and the plant was just leaning. One more chop and it would be gone. i felt as if I had hurt a little child.' But he always had a pilgrimages to the 'ugly desert bush' that remained remarkably alive because of the grace of the guru. Anandamoy said "Now think of the love that the Master had for an ugly desert bush. If he had this much love for an ugly desert bush think of how much more love he has for us."
We are much like this when we have love for others or have had love for others and then 'cut them down' in a moment of anger or intolerance or leave them in the cold after giving them warmth. Will our love live? Can we continue to be loving in the presence of ugliness around us? Will we heal the wounds of others? Will we revive even the ugly desert bushes that often come into our lives? 
