February 2012 Ritual: A Valentine for You!

/in /by

 

 

By Diann L. Neu

Women’s Words on Love

“Love alone matters.”
–Therese of Lisieux (1897), quoted in Dorothy Day, Therese (1960)

“Love is such a powerful force. It’s there for everyone to embrace—that kind of unconditional love for all of humankind. That is the kind of love that impels people to go into the community and try to change conditions for others, to take risks for what they believe in.”
–Coretta Scott King, quoted in The Black Woman’s Gumbo Ya-Ya (1993)

“Love opens the doors into everything, as far as I can see, including and perhaps most of all, the door into one’s own secret, and often terrible and frightening, real self.”
–May Sarton, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing (1965)

“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”
–Helen Keller, We Bereaved (1929)

“’Till I loved / I never lived – Enough.”
–Emily Dickinson, Poems by Emily Dickinson (1862)

“I venture to say that for women friends, love is an orientation toward the world as if my friend and I were more united than separated, more at one among the many than separate and alone.”
–Mary E. Hunt, Fierce Tenderness (1991)

“Talking with one another is loving one another.”
–Kenyan Proverb

“I love you means let the revolution begin!”
–Carter Heyward, The Redemption of God (1982)

“Love is concerned / that the beating of your heart / should kill no one.”
–Alice Walker, Love Is Not Concerned (1983)

“The final word is love.”
–Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness (1952)

Your Thoughts

What is love for you? Whom do you love? How do you love?

A Prayer for Love

May love be within you.
May love be around you.
May love be beside you.
May love fill your days and your nights.
May love be between you and others.
May you walk lovingly with the Earth.
May love fill the Earth and increase.
Amen. Blessed Be. Let It Be So.

© Diann L. Neu, WATER, dneu@hers.com

Make 2012 a year of generous love and join us in working toward a more just world for all. Share with WATER some of your love and generosity. Honor your significant other or your loved ones by donating in their name. It’s a nice gift to express how filled you are with caring and good will.