Three essential loves 1: cosmic

The Book of TREE 1.37

Brother Lawrence said:

That he had always been governed by love, without selfish views; and that having resolved to make the love of God the end of all his actions, he had found reasons to be well satisfied with his method.

Which makes me think of The Beatles, obviously, and also Jesus saying that the two greatest commands are love God with your whole being and love your neighbour as you love yourself.

When commands are ‘the greatest’, they aren’t merely saying, this is what you should do to be good. They are giving insight into how life works. Jesus is saying that in order for life to work well you need three loves:

• Yourself

• The people you come into contact with

• Something cosmic

For Jesus, a first century Jew, something cosmic was God, the creator and father of all. For me, a 21st century ecstatic materialist, something cosmic is the universe.

I live on a speck floating in incomprehensible vastness. The speck is a world crowded with life and I am part of that life along with my family, my cats, the population of Dursley, the common backswimmer that Christine found struggling on the pavement in front of our house nowhere near any water so I carried it half a mile to the stream so it could keep backswimming, trees, soil, coriander – I love the whole big mesh of it all. I love the fact that I get to be aware of it. I get to be part of it. I get to contribute to it.

The universe puts me in my place: I am really only very small and life flows on within me and without me and at the same time my place matters.

What is your cosmic love? Have you taken the time to think about the specifics of what and why it is?

Yesterday I was in a major Mr Little Jeans mood. Allow me to pass the mood along to you.

Grow slowly
Jeff