A Wildfire Love

By Adam J. Pearson

Love connects;
Fear separates.
Love accepts in safety;
Fear trembles, insecure.

Forgiveness releases us into freedom;
Condemnation chains us into bondage.
Forgiveness is love in action;
Attacking expresses fear.

The deeper I can love without conditions,
Without requiring in return,
The safer I can feel,
And the more fearless.

I cannot offer safety to others
If I myself feel unsafe,
But when I discover within
A security that cannot be threatened,
Then I myself become a refuge
And a safe haven.

I cannot make anyone else responsible
For my own love, joy, and peace,
For to do so is to give them a burden
That is not theirs to carry.

Instead, I look within to find them,
Unconditionally present, within me,
For what I find within is secure within,
And what depends on fleeting conditions
Itself is fleeting and impermanent.

When I feel abundant,
I pour out that abundance to others.
When I feel lacking,
I drain others of what I feel I lack.

Therefore, because I want to be happy,
And offer happiness to others,
I cultivate an abundance of joy within.

Because I want to be loved,
And offer love to others,
I discover an abundance of love within.

Because I want to be peaceful,
And offer peace to others,
I reveal an abundance of peace within.

Because I want to receive compassion,
And offer compassion to others,
I nurture an abundance of compassion within.

I cannot receive
What I do not got give,
And I cannot give
What I have not found within.

What I find within,
I can share without fear of loss,
For unconditional love
Is not lost by being shared;
Unconditional joy
Is not diminished by being offered,
Unconditional peace
Is not lessened by pouring out to others.
For a boundless cup
Cannot be emptied.

When love, joy, and peace are shared,
They not only do not diminish;
They grow.
For offering love is extending it,
And what is extended is greater than it was before.

Just as love begins by kindling gently within,
Like a minute flame
On a lonely twig,
So does it grow in intensity as it spreads,
Like a wildfire that surges to consume
A great forest.

Just as a thirsty traveler,
Lost in the woods,
Rejoices to wander into an open clearing
And find it filled with life-giving streams
Of water that runs clear,
So do I delight to find that peace
Is a nourishing clearing within,
An inner space, vast and aware,
In which all thoughts and feelings appear,
Like clouds within a boundless sky,
That remains untouched
By the passing of the clouds.

How can a peace so boundless
And undisturbable
Be lost by being shared?

Just as a small light,
Beamed into a hall of mirrors,
Begins as a thin gold stream,
And as it reflects off the polished glass,
Grows and spreads to illuminate the hall,
So does joy, having dawned within,
Swell into resplendence
When shared.

All of these,
I look within to find–
A beam of joy,
A clearing of peace,
A wildfire love.

Read More from Adam Pearson at http://philosophadam.wordpress.com/