How Much Love Do We Need?

I was wandering around blogs here in my early morning fogginess -- it's like walking a wide empty silent beach of wonderful cool wet sand some mornings before dawn -- and all the questions, big and deep, can surface. Who made the ocean? Who made the sun? Why are we here? How do we give love? How do we receive it? How much love do we need? I skip a rock across the blog ocean -- it skips three pretty times across the waves, and comes to rest below the surface of a blog. Looks as if I've landed on some geek's blog who loves computers and just had a birthday, who is he anyway?

Reading a blog I've never read by a young man I'll probably never know. He describes his birthday, he's 34 and there is someone wonderful in his life named Erin who gets up early to make him waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and she gives him a shank router bit combo -- I don't know what the heck it is -- but Erin knew he really really wanted one. And I don't need to know much more than that to know this is a lucky man.

Wonderful to have people to care for -- Erin you're lucky too. And wonderful to be cared for. Wonderful to matter. Does it seem a small thing? It isn't. We build a web of context in our lives, sometimes very small with just a few people who wonder if you got in late at night, safe and sound and call to check. People to love you and miss you. We need that. If you do that for someone, don't underestimate how important that is. You've done something wonderful. You've answered my question -- how much love do we need? We all need a little and we all need a lot and we all need to give it to one another.

In his blog, this young man talks about his love of singing Latin. I love Latin too. Read what he says.

I miss singing latin in a way I don't miss German or Italian or French (especially French). Maybe it's the sonorities, or maybe it's the historical weight of knowing these words have been sung by millions for millennia, but there's a certain clarity when singing latin that calms the soul and smoothes the mind.
The only dead language that will live forever. Deservedly.

Click here for an MP3 of the song.

Ubi Caritas et Amor Deus ibi est
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.
Exultemus et in ipso jucundemur.
Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.
Ubi Caritas et Amor Deus ibi est.
Amen.

Amen.

Where charity and love are, there is God.
The love of Christ has brought us together into one.
Let us rejoice and be glad in that love itself.
Let us fear and love the living God and let us love from a pure heart.
Where charity and love are, there is God.
Amen.

Happy Birthday Jason Young. Young, but not so young, and wise beyond your years.