Love Lights

So I'm sitting at a place called The Admiral. It looks like a night time fantasy of every joint i've ever dreamed of launching. A marine blue ceiling is punctuated by cognac-colored, upside down lampshades whose warm lights spill onto waiters, trays, movement.

There's a really sexy red lamp at the front on an entry table. Is this a little tiny red light district? Seascapes - oil paintings of garage-sale quality - adorn the walls while taverna-style lanterns dangle from chains on either side. It's easy to be here. All are welcome.

They love their meat here: I've chosen a mushroom ragout, but the bartender tells me, "Really, it's nice, but if you choose the meat you'll see why we're so popular." The man next to me is telling his date, "This is the tenderest pork i've ever tasted in all my life."

A younger bartender, farther down, is swiping the counter while singing along to "You can't hurry love." It's strangely gratifying to hear hip, bearded young folks connecting to Motown, and who sing it aloud, in chic restaurants. Over all our heads, more lanterns. I feel I am safely in harbor, while the reality is that i am in the mountains of western north carolina. Wherever i go, i still find the sea, and tiny harbor lights.

In the esoteric teachings, there is a prayer about "bringing to light the love that underlies the happenings of the times." Are these little lanterns love-lights, or am I drinking?

I wonder if that's o.k. -- like, is this the cozy cave of the Great Mother? I mean, if i were the Great Mother, and I had a cozy cave, what lanterns would i choose? What drinks would I serve? How do I display my love?

Love includes, but is different from, attachment, which involves a cloying, clinging kind of feeling. Love is an enchanted appreciation. Love is something you bring offerings to. Love is something that makes time drown under the power of appreciation. And yes, you can have it on your back, if you like. Or you can float, or roll, or dance.

Love is a way of radiating universal appreciation, while noting the exquisite particulars.

These words come out when i am well fed: Love, light, nourishment, appreciation. Mmmmmm.