Love is Always Legendary

I dreamt once that I was standing at the bottom of the ocean. I felt this intense, heavy weight bearing down on me as if I was holding up the entire sea with my own tiny back. 

I had to bear the weight of the ocean. I had to be the one the sea could stand on. Then, suddenly, this unexpected soft ripple of light made me lift my head. I had been staring at the sand and mud on the sea floor, but with that glimmer of light, I glanced up to see what was in front of me.

A huge mirror stood before me. And at first, all I could see was the strain and suffering on my face from holding this impossible amount of weight on my shoulders. But when I looked past my own reflection and saw instead the love in my eyes, I could see my grandfather’s image in the mirror. He had that glowing look of love, that otherworldly gaze he used when he looked at me while he was alive. 

And then I noticed that he was actually just the first in an endless line of ancestors all looking at me with that same love-gaze. I couldn’t see the end of the line of loved ones all there holding up the ocean with me. 

There are some dreams that are just dreams and evaporate the moment we get out of bed. But there are other dreams that are more like revelations, visions, that we remember vividly long after. This dream remains as strong as the morning I woke up from having it. 

Whenever I feel this sense of having to do something on my own, or of being alone with my grief, or sadness, or with a choice about my life that is creating stress and pressure, I see that mirror at the bottom of the sea again. 

And I remember that the love that lives within me is actually a love that lives through me.

I remember that this love that sees out through me is legendary. 

The love that lives within me began long before I drew my first breath. I am just one link in an unending chain of love. I am just one tiny link. My life is a continuation of all the love that has been passed on to me. This love that is most me has also always been more than mine. 

Love is always legendary. 

There’s an entire unseen world that exists within. It feels hidden or invisible because we’re so adept at trusting what we can see and know of the physical, material world with our eyes. 

But if we only rely on our eyes, we can forget or disconnect from all the love that has made our love possible. We can forget that even though a loved one has passed on, the love that they are lives on with us from within us.

Each time we love, each time we practice being more loving, returning to love, allowing love to overwhelm an unforgiving state we’ve fallen into, we are connected again to them. We join a vast sea of all the love that has come before us. All love lives on through us from within us.

This is the form of vision Mary Magdalene practiced. This is how she was able to see Christ within her heart. This is the form of vision that lifts the weight of what we thought we had to do alone. This is the form of vision that connects us to the legacy of love we each come from. 

And this is why Mary responds to Peter in her gospel, when he asks her to tell them what she knew by heart, “I will teach you about what is hidden from you.” (Mary 6:3)

With only more love,
​M.