love
As Brene Brown rights in Daring Greatly (the latest book I've tackled), "Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light." Beautiful. And so very true. Preach, Brene. Preach.
Read More
Another year, another opportunity to reflect, ground myself and be grateful.
Hol-eeeeee-cow. 23. When do you start feeling your age? I'm curious - and I seriously would like an answer. I feel like each year I get older with the expectation of feeling wiser and well, older, but it never comes. It's always at bay. I still feel like my mind has miles to go to catch up with the magical number that seems to increase more and more rapidly as time goes on. Oy.
In honor of another trip around the sun, I've got a list of 23 important life lessons that my arguably short time on this earth has taught me:
Bring it on, 23. I'm ready for ya.
I was talking with one of the most beautiful souls I've come across in this vast world and she said something that I had never heard before, "I fall in love with everyone I meet." She then proceeded to talk about how that love comes in many different forms, but it's always there. Wow, I love that. I've always looked at the word love as a very heavy, serious thing, not to be used lightly and definitely to be used sparingly. Love has always seemed like something that needed to be earned, to be worked for. Well, I've been dead wrong all of this time.
People always say that you should sprinkle kindness around like confetti, that shit's contagious, and I'm starting to realize the same applies for love. Be love. Spread love. Because why the f*** not? I'm not talking about the let's-get-married, I-want to-spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-you love, (but by all means, if that's what you've got to give than get to it!) but just plain love. The I-appreciate-you, seeing-you-makes-my-day-brighter kind of love. Life is far too short not to be constantly telling the people who matter most in your life that you love them. I don't ever want someone who has my love--in whatever capacity that is--to go without knowing.
I didn't intend to drop the "meaning of life" bomb, but it's just going to have to happen anyways. The meaning of life isn't made up of what we did for a living, how much money we raked in, where we traveled, what we accomplished, or any of that petty B.S.--but you know this. In my humble opinion, our purpose in life has much more to do with how we made people feel; how fervently, brilliantly and ferociously we loved. I truly believe we're put on this earth to create relationships and connect with each other. It's as simple as that. When you take a step back and look at the big picture, the only thing that matters once you strip away ego, desire, lust, greed and all of that good stuff, is our relationships. Our love.
As one of my favorite authors once wrote, "There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice." (Preach, Mr. Fitzgerald, preach.) Whether that's brotherly love, motherly love, best friend love, you-make-the-best-latte-in-town love or anything in between, it's all love, and the world needs a lot more of it.
Namaste, bitches.
(P.s. I wrote love 22 times in this brief post, I know.)
