The only true measure of our lives Is how well we love

[Gabrielle Dean]

HOW WELL WE LOVE

 Bend your heart toward love

As a flower bends to face the sun

 

When all is said and done

The only true measure of our lives 

Is how well we love.

How well we give love, receive love, share love

Protect love, create love.

 

Nothing else will matter when our turn comes 

To make the final journey – 

Only the love we were will linger

Only love will speak our name 

In the hearts of those we embraced.

 

We were made to love, you and I

Made so by the author of love

Made in the image of love to be the love we are

STEVEN CHARLESTON,  retired Episcopal bishop and Native American of the Choctaw nation

First image is for my mother who tried desperately to grow things, including Hoya, in a place where they never could thrive (I remember her planting a Geraldton wax in the heavy clay soil and freezing climate of New England in NSW). Second is of bees doing 'How well we give love, receive love, share love’.