"There are three sparks that kindle love:
the face, the demeanor, and the way of
speaking." ___ ancient Irish triad
These sparks are like three lights that shine from the beloved, beacons that shine upon our dark and lonely landscape and illumine it in a way that no other person can achieve. The first light strikes us from the eyes: there is a liquid light within the eyes of the beloved that illuminates her face. Because the soul can be seen in the eyes, the glance of the beloved warms and welcomes us, while the glance of the enemy chills, repels, or withers us like a laser beam.
The whole nature of the soul is seen in the demeanor of the beloved: the way the person moves, his body language, his way of guarding and shielding his soul with respect. The demeanor of the beloved is like an aurora of dawning that permeates the surrounding area with a gentle light and picks out features that are important and noteworthy in our own soul.
Most wonderful is the light shed by the voice of the beloved. It is tuned to our own cadence, becoming a pathway of welcome, a resonant and gently penetrating music. Of all the sparks that we value about our beloved, the voice is probably the one we remember longest. Even those lovers whose beloved is dead and who can now scarcely remember every loved feature, who become impatient with the false memory of a photograph, say that the voice of the beloved is the most beautiful thing they still remember. The beloved speaks of things beneath the spoken words, like a ray of light that carries the shape and the shadow in its wake. To that shape we cleave while others linger in the shadow.
"Consider your own beloved, whether alive or dead. Which of his or her qualities spark love within you? How are loving qualities present within yourself?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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