Love Like a Feather

François Fénelon once wrote: “We must love our fellows, without expecting friendship from them; they leave us and return, they go and come; let them do as they will; it is but a feather, the sport of the wind.”

There’s something freeing in that image. Love, he reminds us, is not about control. It isn’t about holding people fast, binding them to us with demands or expectations. Instead, love is about open hands. People come; people go. Sometimes they drift near, sometimes they drift away. To love them well is to bless their coming and their going without grasping.

This doesn’t mean indifference. A feather is delicate, noticed, and appreciated. But it also doesn’t resist the wind. To love without clinging is to recognize that relationships are a gift, not a possession. Their presence is a grace. Their absence is not a theft.

Fénelon’s wisdom calls us to love generously but lightly, without fear of loss or need for control. In this way, we free both ourselves and those we love. They are not ours to hold captive; they are God’s. And when we release people to Him, we discover that the One who is constant has already promised never to leave or forsake us.