To the Lover in You
As the warming sun begins to stir the earth into buds and blooms here in So Cal, I find myself drawn, once again, to these beautiful words of the poet Mary Oliver from her poem “Wild Geese.”
“You do not have to be good
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only need to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.”
What is it that the soft animal of your body loves to love?
And what if it is true, that what you love is the cure? What courage might that kindle in your heart?
In the cultural power-over paradigms that continue to rule our world, we have lost reverence for the goodness of the physical. The earth is made into a “resource.” The body seen as a necessary evil, separate from the realm of spirit.
But the truth is that the body, your body, is the temple of the Spirit.
To be is to be a body.
You are holy matter.
Your body matters.
And to be in a body is to be in the wild, messy, erotic dance of life.
Erotic, you say? Oh yes!
Eco-philosopher, Andres Weber writes in his book Erotic Ecology:
“Being in the world is primarily an erotic encounter, an encounter of meaning through contact, an encounter of being oneself through the significance of others.”
Don't you just love that idea!?
I know I do. Separation is the illusion from which we suffer. The cherished myth of the individual prevents us from fully participating in the erotic dance that is life.
The hummingbirds are sipping on the orange blossoms of the grevillea outside my window as I write this, reminding me that Spring is whispering on the horizon as we turn towards the equinox.
And we, too, are invited to drink deeply of the eros of life, to play with the Lover archetype.
We are asked to become the One who is wooed by the world, sensual and enlivened by the tastes, smells, sights, textures, and sounds of this generous earth.
To be the One who lets “the soft animal of our body love what it loves.”
Love asks us to be entered, to blur the boundaries and exchange ourselves with the world around us.
Our bodies are a constellation of connections. An interchange between the world outside and the world within.
We breathe the gift of the trees into our lungs.
We consume the flesh of another to give us life. I eat the strawberry, and her body becomes my own.
We have more bacterial cells inside the temple of our bodies than human ones.
We are a riot of relationships. We are not separate. We are part of a larger story.
How might you show up this day to the wild dance of love?
How might you become the Lover participating in an erotic exchange with the unfolding love story of life?
If you are looking for support in tending your own love story with soul, I invite you to check out 1:1 Soul Tending, a contemplative container designed to help you deepen into your innate wisdom and attune to the voice of your soul.
The Lover in me honors the Lover in you.
May we be bold in love!
Pssst….know someone who might like this post? Pass it on!
Connecting to the body’s wisdom and the longings of our soul are important aspect of the work I do as a 1:1 Soul Companion.
What to read more? Check out these related posts:
Hi, I’m Stephanie!
As a Soul Companion, educator, and sacred space holder, I am passionate about deepening our connection to the earth, our bodies, and the Divine Mystery that dances in all that is.
Let’s journey together into the sacred wild!
