Welcome to my World

Welcome to the domain different--to paraphrase from New Mexico's capital city of Santa Fe which bills itself "The City Different." Perhaps this space is not completely unique but my world shapes what I write as well as many other facets of my life. The four Ds figure prominently but there are many other things as well. Here you will learn what makes me tick, what thrills and inspires me, experiences that impact my life and many other antidotes, vignettes and journal notes that set the paradigm for Dierdre O'Dare and her alter ego Gwynn Morgan and the fiction and poetry they write. I sell nothing here--just share with friends and others who may wander in. There will be pictures, poems, observations, rants on occasion and sometimes even jokes. Welcome to our world!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Life without Love

...is merely existing. I testify that Love is an essential part of truly living and without it, one can exist but it is a very lifeless and empty kind of life. But I have some very specific criteria and parameters for what Love is!

 We certainly  toss the word around with reckless abandon. We "love" ice cream, our favorite sports teams, our new car, a chic dress or cute outfit in a store window. That's not love--it may be liking or enjoying or supporting but it isn't love. To me Love (and I use the capital letter to differentiate between the careless and the meaningful terms here) has to have certain things. Love has friendship/kinship, devotion, respect, caring, and unselfish bonding--we don't love just because it feels good or gives us a temporary pleasure or thrill! . And it must have passion as well.. Again I use the word in a particular sense. There is of course amorous or sexual passion but there are many other kinds as well. To me it expresses an almost holy or divine depth of feeling, connection, need/want/desire and perhaps purpose.

So to really live we must Lovc and Love is much broader than the care we feel for casual friends and our various fads, enthusiasms and wishes. What am I passionate about? Quite a number of things and they do tie in to Love. I strongly believe in care, protection, nurture and support for children and animals, for the elderly and ill and for the earth itself. I think we are here to give this to the maximum degree we are able and I cannot think of foul enough punishments for those who abuse and mistreat those who are weaker, vulnerable and less fortunate! Yes, I do love children, animals and our world. I try to love my fellow humans although some of them are distinctly un-lovable! That is part of the Druid philosophy and ethic by which I try to live.

I love a number of friends, mostly in a platonic way and a few in a less sisterly way I suppose. In this I am a bit more selfish than I wish I was, perhaps, because I know I am drawn to certain people and feel a connection to them while others are very two-dimensional and exist along the periphery of my world like cardboard cutout figures. I may feel empathy, sympathy, pity or some mild respect for some of them but the depth of feeling is not there. I can't help it whether it is 'wrong' or not.

I suppose I'd have to say I also love certain activities. It means a great deal to me to create things of utility and hopefully also of beauty. I enjoy working with my hands and making things by sewing, stringing beads, cutting, polishing and shaping stones, drawing or painting. I especially enjoy putting words together into verses and tales, all of these being things I have done since the middle or later stages of childhood and youth.

I love my companion animals and give them the best care I can afford and certainly invest a lot of my time, emotion and attention on them. In the past I had horses and mules and I have had dogs much of my life. Without them life would be much less enjoyable for me despite the fact they can be frustrating at times and like small children, needy and heedless in seeking what they want or require. But that is okay and it is their nature, a mechanism by which they survive, so I do my best to fill their needs and be patient with them.

I love my brother, my children, grand children and great grands--although I often get cross or frustrated with them. That does not take away from the love but is just a small bump in the roads of life that we have to navigate. Sometimes emotional 4-wheel drive is really needed since some of these bumps can be big boulders and major washouts but get past them we do and that usually strengthens the bond in the long run.

So here on the eve of Valentine's Day, I celebrate Love in its vast array of shapes and colors, its diverse textures and tones, its incredible power and the wonder of it. Truly, Love is the One True Thing and the closest we can come in our present lives to a sense of the awesome encompassing entity that we call variously God, Godde, the Power that Be, the Universal etc. Love is a divine and sacred gift, one we should always respect and cherish, honor and appreciate. We need to be both careful and completely generous and free in our giving of it and sometimes realize that accepting or taking it back is equally critical. To reject love is to reject the sacred. That does not mean we have to subject ourselves to unwanted attention and demanding, possessive behavior from others but  probably look at the reasons why and try to help that person find a better way to meet his or her needs. It's all a juggling act but if Love was not real and here and ours to reach out and accept, life would be grim and empty indeed.I am so thankful that Love is!!

So today and throughout your lives, I wish you all, my friends and readers, Love in all its splendor!

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