Meister Eckhart: "Love Does That"

All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.

And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.

Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,

he looks into the burro's eyes and touches her ears

and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh,

because love does
that.

Love frees.

"Love Does That" by Meister Eckhart, from Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, edited by Daniel Ladinsky. Translated from the German by Daniel Ladinsky. © Penguin Books, 2002.

Photography credit: Untitled image by Mike Allegra (originally color).