I’ve just gotten off a call with a friend, and we were talking about the difference between sexual energy and eros.  I was struck by how much I feel the bee and the flower represent the essence of eros.  It is something that is both intangible, and all around us.  Yes, it can include sexual energy, but it its expression is not limited to the sexual.  It is life, vitality, sensuality, and something more.

My daughter asked me the other day how apple trees make apples.  We were looking some apple blossoms and I shared with her that in order for an apple blossom to become an apple, the blossom first must be kissed by a bee.  It’s both innocent and deeply erotic.  Natural and completely divine.

It is the entwinement of essence between two things that are wholly individual by belong to one another.  It is the vine entwined with the tree.  The river snaking into the sea.  The sparks from the fire mixed with the pin-pricks of the night stars.

As spring unfurls, we become that much more aware of it.  We have the chance to surrender to it.  To dance with it.  To be mistress to the unfolding multitudes of unions.  We too can become the shore desired by the sea.

Eros brings us into contact with The Beloved.  It reminds us of our longing and our belonging.

We can call the Beloved to us through dreams, through poetry, through prayer, through offering ourselves to the mystery?  Why?  Because the spirit of the beloved moves through all things.  Twin to Eros, the Beloved awakens to our call, and wakes us up to its call.  It is the great shapeshifter, coursing through our lives, steady and tangible; ineffable and fleeting.

Whatever the state of your heart, you can encounter the Beloved.  It a spirit that moves through all things, and yet particular to you and the shape of your being.  You’ve met it before.  You’ve dreamt with it, of it.  Them? A person? A color? A passing warmth?  A moment in a storm.