Soul Love

The lyrics present love as a powerful force appearing in very different lives: a mother grieving at a grave, a young couple beginning a romance, and a priest reflecting on faith and loneliness. The repeated lines suggest that love can arrive without warning and affect people who are not prepared for it. The mood moves between tenderness, grief, and uncertainty rather than offering a simple celebration of romance.

Several images make these contrasts vivid. The mother’s eyes meet a slogan on a headstone, linking public ideals or beliefs with private loss. The young couple share “new words,” suggesting the private language people develop when they fall in love. The “flaming dove” combines peace and passion, perhaps expressing a wish to touch something beautiful but dangerous. “Love is careless in its choosing” implies that love does not select its recipients according to fairness or readiness.

The refrain “love is not loving” questions whether feeling love, or admiring the idea of love, is the same as actively caring for someone. The song may be contrasting love as an abstract ideal with love as a lived experience, which can involve sacrifice, vulnerability, and pain. The priest’s loneliness and the mother’s grief leave open whether love offers comfort, deepens sorrow, or does both at once.