(dc y1 174 p 7) tax day

today i finish my taxes and associated tasks and temporarily pretend everything else is OK. i've learned that if i pretend long enough, it will still not become true. but it does get easier to pretend. ;)

this calls moby's song to mind:

"people they come together
people they fall apart
nothing can stop us now
cuz we are all made of stars."

on a serious (and possibly too earnest for some of you) note, today while doing taxes, i'll be reflecting on Abdu'l-Bahá's description of the four kinds of love from a talk he gave in england in 1913.

"97 Cadogan Gardens, London, Saturday, January 4th, 1913 What a power is love! It is the most wonderful,
the greatest of all living powers.

Love gives life to the lifeless. Love lights a flame in the heart that is cold. Love brings hope to the hopeless and gladdens the hearts of the sorrowful.

In the world of existence there is indeed no greater power than the power of love. When the heart of man is aglow with the flame of love, he is ready to sacrifice all--even his life. In the Gospel it is said God is love.

There are four kinds of love.
[...]

The fourth is the love of man for man. The love which exists between the hearts of believers is prompted by the ideal of the unity of spirits. This love is attained through the knowledge of God, so that men see the Divine Love reflected in the heart. Each sees in the other the Beauty of God reflected in the soul, and finding this point of similarity, they are attracted to one another in love. This love will make all men the waves of one sea, this love will make them all the stars of one heaven and the fruits of one tree. This love will bring the realization of true accord, the foundation of real unity.

But the love which sometimes exists between friends is not (true) love, because it is subject to transmutation; this is merely fascination. As the breeze blows, the slender trees yield. If the wind is in the East the tree leans to the West, and if the wind turns to the West the tree leans to the East. This kind of love is originated by the accidental conditions of life. This is not love, it is merely acquaintanceship; it is subject to change.

Today you will see two souls apparently in close friendship; tomorrow all this may be changed. Yesterday they were ready to die for one another, today they shun one another's society! This is not love; it is the yielding of the hearts to the accidents of life. When that which has caused this `love' to exist passes, the love passes also; this is not in reality love."

-Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 179

if work offered in the spirit of service is worship, today while working i will be praying for True Love to be manifest in lives and hearts, if that's what God wills.