When Words Fall Away: Experiencing the Meaning of Love
We try to define love, capture it, explain it. But real love? It renders us speechless, broken-pen helpless, and bathed in light beyond words.
The Meaning of Love
Rumi
Both light and shadow
are the dance of Love.
Love has no cause;
it is the astrolabe of God’s secrets.
Lover and Loving are inseparable
and timeless.
Although I may try to describe Love
when I experience it I am speechless.
Although I may try to write about Love
I am rendered helpless;
my pen breaks and the paper slips away
at the ineffable place
where Lover, Loving and Loved are one.
Every moment is made glorious
by the light of Love.
Reflection:
Love is not just a feeling, nor something we fall into—it is the current that flows beneath all things. In Rumi’s words, love is both the light and the shadow, the presence and the mystery. It has no cause because it is the cause. When we try to speak of love, we stumble. When we try to write about it, the pen breaks and the page disappears—not from failure, but from awe.
Rumi points us to the divine center where Lover, Loving, and Loved are one. It’s not a place of analysis or articulation, but of surrender. Love is not what we hold—it’s what holds us. In our quietest moments, when the ego quiets down and the soul breathes, we glimpse it. And suddenly, even our silence is filled with light.
❓
Three Questions for Deeper Reflection:
- When in your life have you felt love so deeply that words failed you?
- How does your experience of love connect to something greater than yourself?
- Are you willing to let go of trying to define love—and simply let it be?