“That heat is an effect of love can be seen from many things, as that man from inmost grows warm according to his life’s loves, even in midwinter, and that the heat of the sun of this world has nothing in common with this heat; also that man grows warm, is enkindled, and is inflamed according to the increase of love…The same is true of the animals of the earth and the flying things of heaven; for these are sometimes warmer in midwinter than in midsummer, for the heart then throbs, the blood becomes heated, the fibers grow warm, and every least part with the greatest performs its vital functions; and this heat is not from the sun bot from the life of their soul, which is affection.”—Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Love
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In splendor and Heaven-Light of sun, their love and signs were changed: no flicker-flash of flame in eyes but a radiance of adoration. Passion and flesh, in Heaven-light were changed. Gone was the consuming fire. Love became peace in being.
Beyond the house that seemed as home, beyond leaf-gold of shaded lawn, they walked in the greater open of pastures and fields composed in further wonder and creation.
It was an unseasonable warmth for October day, and they loved it for what it was—a gift. In lasting and living of the heat, wildflowers still bloomed even as grasses cured and the hardwoods turned.
It was a world of life, a world of color—even in the changing. Yellow of sunflowers shone in stack and cover of tall, green branching stalks in climb for sky. Near beside, deep red of bluestem colored in commune of its dying back into itself; its fine, awned heads of seed broken and scattered into cover of prairie’s understory.
Pecan trees shone in bright and yellow. Green of their husked nuts colored in cover of earth beneath.
There was chatter of the squirrels, birdsongs in roost and flight, and sonata play of cricket-sound that carried as eternal undertone.
They walked in the day. They walked in the light: no direction, end, or aim—just being, present and sharing of day and the living heat.