The Moments You Really Lived

Contributed by Barbara Taylor

Photo by DanBrady

“You will find, as you look back on your life,

that the moments when you really lived

are the moments when you acted

in the Spirit of Love.”

—Henry Drummond

I came across Drummond’s beautiful line a few weeks ago and in reflecting on it have come to see that, for me, there is truth in these words.

I’m sure that the author carefully chose his language: “…the moments when you acted in the Spirit of Love.” He didn’t say: when you acted out of love, or when you did loving things for or toward someone or something else. These latter descriptions are prone to human interpretation and agendas. For example, what I might think of as a ‘loving behavior’ could be experienced quite differently by another.

Drummond refers to the fleeting times when we act out of the spirit of love which, I think, is a subtle but profound difference. He accentuates this with capital letters, pointing to the higher form, or perhaps the essence of both spirit and love.

My sense of his meaning are those times when I am—usually suddenly—infused, moved, visited, or otherwise inspired by a thought or idea that yearns to become action. Often these flashes of insight or feeling arise in connection with other living beings. I experience it as a movement of energy that wants expression through action, whether that action occurs in thought, word, or deed.

In my own experience, it feels true, right, and often pleasurable to work with this energy and collaborate in its intention. The Spirit of Love seems to make itself known without any forethought by me. The inspiration arrives and is experienced; it is then translated into some kind of creative action (which may require thinking and planning and doing).

It seems to me that the more time I’m involved in habitual modes of thinking during the day, the less time I’m available to notice the subtle movements of the Spirit of Love. I want to spend more moments really living. How about you?