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Volume 38, No. 4

2/15/24 | Newsletter

You Might As Well Love - 

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day - a rare moment for both holidays to fall on the same day. I couldn’t help but think of Padraig O’Tuama’s poem, “The Facts of Life.”

The Facts of Life
That you were born
and you will die.

That you will sometimes love enough
and sometimes not.

That you will lie
if only to yourself.

That you will get tired.

That you will learn most from the situations
you did not choose.

That there will be some things that move you
more than you can say.

That you will live
that you must be loved.

That you will avoid questions most urgently in need of
your attention.

That you began as the fusion of a sperm and an egg
of two people who once were strangers
and may well still be.

That life isn’t fair.
That life is sometimes good
and sometimes better than good.

That life is often not so good.

That life is real
and if you can survive it, well,
survive it well
with love
and art
and meaning given
where meaning’s scarce.

That you will learn to live with regret.
That you will learn to live with respect.

That the structures that constrict you
may not be permanently constraining.

That you will probably be okay.

That you must accept change
before you die
but you will die anyway.

So you might as well live
and you might as well love.
You might as well love.
You might as well love.

Ash Wednesday proclaims a fact of life: You will die. You have no choice. It will come for us all. “From dust you were formed and to dust you will return.”

As we embark on this Lenten journey and walk the road that will lead to Jesus’s own death, we have an opportunity to think critically about the life we’ll lead, and what better way is there to live than to love. 

Thomas Merton once said, “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.”

You will die anyway.
So you might as well live.
And you might as well love.
You might as well love.
You might as well love.

Looking forward to a meaningful Lenten season at Royal Lane.

Pastor Victoria