All you need is Love?

The search for love takes us in many and varied directions. If you have received a surprise Valentine’s Day card this week you may wonder who it was from and what your admirer is wanting to say to you.

We all love and want to be loved - no wonder stories about love abound in every culture around the world.

Some stories open up the shape and meaning of love and touch even the hardest of hearts. Sometime in the next few days, I shall watch (again) the Richard Curtis film, About Time. The plot? A young man with the special ability to time travel tries to change his past in order to improve his future. The search for romance, the craziness of all families, making a home, the struggle to find our way in work, loneliness, physical attraction, illness, death and human vulnerability all shape the story.

What holds it together is glorious, unpredictable, undeserved romance and an occasionally awesome sound track.

What’s not to love? We love romance. We are all romantic!

As ever there is plenty here to help us laugh at ourselves and shape living for the good.

And what are love’s lessons, told over and over again in our stories, lyrics, scripts?

Money cannot buy it (‘never met a happy rich person’).

Love expresses reassurance (mainly through a hug).

A loving life is expressed mainly through the ordinary quiet moments, like sharing of a pot of tea.

Adventurous loving is lived through courtship and play.

Nurturing love is expressed by not taking ourselves too seriously!

Amidst all life’s distractions and hurdles, love is best celebrated by living in the present moment. In our striving for love, there are disappointments, hurts and pain. These are all part of our human lot and we shall need each other and lots of slow breathing to prevail. Above all, befriend your tears!

So let us soften our hearts and succumb to love with all its colour and wonder. It is a wonderful life. Go on – tell someone you love him or her. Show someone you care. Surprise someone with an unexpected act of kindness. All we need is Love in this one short life of ours. Away with cynical reservations: it’s time to accept and deliver an extra pint of human kindness and love.

By The Rev Canon Professor

James Woodward

Principal of Sarum College