Making well requires my complete involvement. I must be fully immersed in what I do, not for my own ends, but in the service of what is being made. Take these words. Each word must mean and sound with the purpose of conveying a single idea: making well requires the duality of self and other.

Put another way, to make a sound I must move. The sound requires me. However, the sound is not me, it is the other, something that becomes outside of me. I cannot make well when I think only of myself.

Take: reach for and hold, with body and mind.

Care: a state of mind and an action of the body that seeks the health, welfare, and protection of someone or something. I may care for an idea and experience as much as for something I can touch.

If I take care only of myself I feel unsatisfied, hollow, empty. The beauty of taking care outside of myself is that I feel, far more. Whatever strength and resilience I have is born through the caring of others.

Whatever I experience, I do so from within. Reflecting on another's different point of view helps me better understand my own. At times I feel saddened, frustrated, or weakened by a different view, perhaps as this is so often the source of conflict. If I sense difference, even for a moment, it might set me apart, dislocate, threaten, divide. And yet, my view is only broadened by reflecting on another's.

I find I love most with others who are open to and welcome difference, for how else can love grow?