Reclaiming LOVE

As we are in the declared “month of LOVE”, February, it felt important to dive into this realm of love, the elusiveness of it for so many, and how to *reclaim* living a life with love at the forefront.  

When talking about love, we must look at the love that we have for ourselves, first and foremost. While the topic of “self-love” has become cliché in so many ways, of course it is at the forefront of our ability to love another. 

How we love ourselves is a direct mirror of how available and able to love another we are. I am not referring solely to romantic love but rather love with life and all of humanity. 

While, of course, it is impossible to be loving in every single moment of every single day, but when we choose to make love an action, a path, a reclamation, then it does become a guiding force for our every move and interaction in life. 

With ourselves and with others.  

Exploring our own personal relationship to love, looking deep within in our own hearts and tuning into those messages, blocks, shields, and crevices of the inner workings of our own beating hearts is a crucial step along the journey of reclamation.  

We must deepen in our own connection to ourselves, which then provides the platform for more authentic, vulnerable, and heart-opening connections to others.  

I do believe that we are all innately born with the ability and capacity to love, wholly and completely unabashedly – without manipulations or games.  

Somewhere along the line that purity and courage is yanked out from beneath us.  At some juncture we allow -- whether consciously or subconsciously -- the opinions, behaviors, wounds, and actions of others to take hold of our hearts and dictate who we are and how we relate to others…especially how we meet others from a place of love.

Love becomes evasive and then we can spend decades trying to recover this lost piece of ourselves, reclaim that natural birthright that is ours….to love and be loved.  

Of course, this is certainly not everyone’s story, but I can honestly say that I have yet to meet a human that doesn’t have some piece of that storyline pulling at their heart strings. 

Then, all too commonly, we do choose people and situations that can recapitulate these stories and this pattern of disconnect and…dysfunction.  We play out the old stories with the new people and we end up even more cracked apart and distant from that true, pure experience of love. 

Yet, there is always hope at every turn, in every crevice.  We do not and cannot back down from our quest. This quest that is our birthright that has been forgotten, perhaps, but is never gone.  

We keep trucking along, drudging through murky waters in some moments and blue, sunny skies in others. 

Yet, we keep the faith. 

We keep the journey enlightened, guided by the depths of our hearts and awakening to the soothing of our souls.  

Can you relate to this trek? The multi-layered climb and the dances of liberation…..all equally beckon. 

With each layer dissolving a new aspect of Self appears.  That next layer of being that is finally granted access to the emergent process.  

And, not a minute too soon as that lesson, that opportunity, that experience, that person was to be in that exact right moment.  

Soaking up the layer-by-layer equally melting and dissolving as to opening and growing. A true death and rebirth process on steroids….or at least some semblance of an upper…carrying you forward with grace.  Always available – always benevolent – yet sometimes ignored.  

This is not always a conscious process, but when we do choose to bring the gaze of mindful consciousness to ourselves and our ways of existing, we can then make the choice to shift it.  

We can choose to really see and feel every person and situation and event and circumstance and experience as an important piece of the divine flow of our unique existence. 

Making the choice to live LOVE, to invite in the guiding light of LOVE into one’s life is a journey, a process, and a spiritual path.  To me, this becomes a day-by-day, moment-by-moment pivot towards softening rather than hardening, speaking kindly rather than harshly, remaining open rather than shutting down, and trusting in this journey of love at every turn along the way.  

How is LOVE showing up in your life right now?  Where are you on your own personal quest and journey?  As always, I would love to hear!