Love every day

Every single day. Every moment you have. Be grateful. Find love. Inside yourself. Within others. Be it, feel it, live it. Share it. Tell the ones you love how you feel. Express your love through gifts of service and kindness. Teach your children. Other children. All children. Be the love they need. Be the love they crave. Teach them how to express their love through words. Through song. Through acts of service and kindness. Share, create, grow, be love.

Find your people, your tribe, your family. (Similar DNA sequencing not required.) Create a social and cultural context that works for all. Live it. Breathe it. Own it.

Love humanity in all its different forms, flavors, colors, textures. Converse with someone with whom you believe you share nothing in common. Identify and flourish in the common.

Expression takes different shapes, sizes, intimacies. Use all of them. Douse others in your love. Surround yourself with those who lift you up. Commit acts that will take the breath away of your loved ones. Of complete strangers. Of those who need it. Of those who least expect it.

(I spent so much of my first marriage being numb. The pain and knowledge of knowing you are not loved. The recognition that the person who shares your bed and your home, has no feelings of passion or compassion for you. They need you. But they don’t want you. They may even tell you they love you. You are a convenience or support but you are not innately valued. It is better to be alone. You are enough. Seek yourself. Seek others who recognize and acknowledge your value in and of the universe.)

Do not look to create things from your imagination that do not exist or are not present. Authentic people and selves will emerge from the others. They will rise to the top. They will look you in the eye. Listen to you. Your words. The silence behind your words. The existing and missing pieces. They will help you find the funny. They will make you laugh. Make you feel safe. Make you feel comfortable in your own skin. Lean into being loved and cherished for your entire you. Breathe through it. Lean in some more. Lean in. Fall in. In love. With yourself. With another. With the world around you.

(Chocolates are not a substitute for love. Saying words that are empty or performing an act without kindness will not bring, spread, create, build love. Love is that internal feeling. It is what makes you know someone, recognize something they love that perhaps they don’t even know, or something they need. It is an expression of one’s caring and compassion without need of return. Without need of an equal or exact replication. Because each of us is different. And no one likes all of the chocolates in an assorted box of candy.)

And if you cannot, do not, want to find love in a person, look for kindness and connection in a fur baby. Adopt or volunteer at a shelter or zoo. Help a creature that has lost hope. Share your love with them. By serving another who is in need, you will create love. Find your happy. The real happy.

(Not a blue light special roll back on sale discount what have you done for me not enough made up holiday show off for my friends post on social media empty inside bauble or trinket or loveless act untruth.)

Creating and spreading love is why we are here. Encompassing all spiritual perspectives and humanitarian approaches, sharing love is what IT is all about. Every single day.

(No holiday gift card wrapping required.)