I had been sitting here all week thinking about what to write about love and then my friend Eileen Hooper McConville posted something on Facebook that took me back to a song about love that has lived in my heart for about 14 years. I remember the first day I heard this song. I was sitting at home curled up in front of my television, well actually a friends, watching an episode of Touched by an Angel. It was an episode where a young boy Petey was working through his bucket list so that he could die in peace. The last thing on his list was a wish that his mother finish a song she had started when he was born. In the episode, she called it Psalm 151. Avalon, who recorded it, called it Testify to Love.
Here are the lyrics and the video to the song
All the colors of the rainbow
All the voices of the wind
Every dream that reaches out
That reaches out to find where love begins
Every word of every story
Every star in every sky
Every corner of creation
Lives to testify
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
I'll be a witness in the silences
When words are not enough
With every breath I take
I will give thanks to God above
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
From the mountains to the valleys
From the rivers to the sea
Every hand that reaches out
Every hand that reaches out to offer peace
Every simple act of mercy
Every step to kingdom come
All the hope in every heart will
Speak what love has done
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
I'll be a witness in the silences
When words are not enough
With every breath I take
I will give thanks to God above
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
I'll be a witness in the silences
When words are not enough
With every breath I take
I will give thanks to God above
For as long as I shall live
I will testify
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
I'll be a witness in the silences
When words are not enough
With every breath I take
I will give thanks to God above
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
I'll be a witness in the silences
When words are not enough
With every breath I take
I will give thanks to God above
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
I was once asked why my testimony of love and my connection to the one I call the Ultimate Consciousness is so strong, it is because I know what love has done. I have seen love work in this world to ensure that I had a family that loved me unconditionally. Did that mean they always liked me or my behaviors? No, but they loved me. My brother Mark and I have not always liked each other, but our love for each other has withstood the test of time and that love has brought us to a place of love and respect for each other. I have seen the transformative power of love in my son’s life as it helped him go from a time of being in restraints multiple times a day because he could not control his anger to a time of being able to live incident free in the community. As long as I shall live I will testify to love.
I have seen what love can do when a life comes into this world and when it leaves this world. I have seen how love can build bridges of faith that bring families through and help people’s spirit transcend to other realms. I remember standing at the end of my now mother in law’s death bed and hearing her tell me what she needed so she could leave. I will testify to love.
Sometimes there are not words to explain what the experience of love feels like in our lives. We know when we experience it, when we feel it around us and when we don’t. Love is one of those feelings we may not be able to explain but we know it when we feel it.
Love for me is more than just a feeling though it became my mission in life many years ago. Love for me is an acronym
Living and learning about humanity
Oneness with the Infinite
Versatility and virtue in an ever changing world
Eternal search for enlightenment
So when I testify to love, it is about the experience of it and my commitment to it being my mission.