What Do I Love?

Today I led a discussion centered around the topic of our passions and desires. “By what star do we navigate our journey on the earth? What we love will shape our days and provide the texture of our inner and outer life. How can we plant what we love in the garden of this life?” (I’m quoting here from Wayne Muller’s How, Then, Shall We Live?) We started with one basic question: “What do you love?” I invited participants contemplate this question, to “sift through a variety of disparate impulses,” and draw up a list.

Earlier this week I was feeling down, disconnected, unloving. I wasn’t sure I’d have anything to write on my list.

I was extremely grateful to discover myself wrong.

• Questions
• Apples
• Myself
• My family
• My job
• Xavier
• My body
• The Earth
• The image of Gaia
• (Neo) Paganism
• Internet
• Humanity
• Bread
• Water
• Breath
• Photographs
• Video
• ROX
• Friends
• Roxlyst
• Lucy
• The elements
• The Sun
• The Stars
• The Moon
• History
• Evolution
• The Academy
• Activism
• Green Party
• Mindfulness
• Contemplative practices
• The people in this room
• My journal
• My fiction
• Words
• Logic
• Emotion
• Music
• Creativity
• Silence
• Beauty
• Meaning
• Fog

This list is by no means exhaustive. I stopped the clock at five minutes. As Muller promises, “this is a fruitful and nourishing practice.”

Photo adapted from original love? / Federico Reiven / BY-NC-SA 2.0