snow in april, love and bubble baths

i think about love a lot
love between people my age,
love between a married man and woman
married for fifty years.
i think about how brave you must be to love
and how you have to step up and fight for love.
you know, it is reading poetry by a stream,
intertwined under a tree,
it is also talking even when you don't feel like it,
it is welcoming vulnerability even if you've been
taught your whole life that
vulnerability is weakness, and it is ugly.

i prayed today while i was in the bathtub thawing out
(yes, it is snowing, and it is april, and i am a little popsicle)
and i told God, i know i don't know how to love very well,
i love just enough.
and then i saw how so many parts of my life are just enough.
and He told me His grace fills in the gaps mightily,
and He showed me pictures of relationships where only His love could
explain the beautiful bond i have shared with these people.
and He said don't be afraid to love.
and don't be afraid to do more than enough
even if i look like a fool.

if i keep seeking like a little child,
if i let Him love me like a mighty lover,
His love will spill right out into my love.
abundance, freedom, overflowing.

i love bathtub prayers.