Half Life (by Stephen Levine)

We walk through half our life
as if it were a fever dream
barely touching the ground
our eyes half open
our heart half closed.

Not half knowing who we are
we watch the ghost of us drift
from room to room
through friends and lovers
never quite as real as advertised.

Not saying half we mean
or meaning half we say
we dream ourselves
from birth to birth
seeking some true self.

Until the fever breaks
and the heart can not abide
a moment longer
as the rest of us awakens,
summoned from the dream,
not half caring for anything but love.

There is a riddle with four questions and the answer to all of these questions is the same one word answer. (And the word isn’t beer!)

What is the reason for existence?
What is the source of the Spirit?
What is worth living for?
What is worth dying for?

The one word answer? Love.

That is why we are here or maybe even have chosen to be here if we could choose at all.

You and I are created in love, come from love, live in love, die in love and will return to love. And the journey of life is to awaken to this truth, to come to our senses, to come home to love.

If there is anything in the bible that makes us fearful, distrustful of this love – this God of love, hold it lightly and let it go. For God is love. (1 John 4:8).  Not love and something else like vengeance or justice or whatever else we want to add to it in our fear. God is love and only love. Love has no opposites.

I’ve heard it said that in the book of Genesis Adam fell asleep and nowhere does it say that he ever woke up. I think there’s a lesson there, a waring, a sign post. The time for dreaming and sleep waking is over. We’re being summoned from the dream to wake up, focus, and find our purpose, of loving God, each other and even ourselves.

Perhaps the old Episcopal prayer says it better as well:

Life is short,
And we do not have much time
to gladden the hearts of those who
make the journey with us.
So…be swift to love,
and make haste to be kind.

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