“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” ~Charles Schulz
Friday, February 14th. Valentine’s Day.
The day we are bombarded with retail opportunities reminding us that we damn well better prove our love by buying something: cards, dinner, chocolates.
Love is so much larger than a red balloon or a pretty present.
“Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.”— David Wilkerson
Love is a verb before it’s a noun, my mother once told me, a choice before it’s a feeling.
Wise woman.
I’ve spent that past three decades trying to figure that one out.
But in a blog? Best to keep my thoughts short and sweet.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”— Rumi
As I’ve said many times before, since you cannot give away what you do not own, if you’re looking to be loved, best start with yourself.
“A healthy self-love means we have no compulsion to justify to ourselves or others why we take vacations, why we sleep late, why we buy new shoes, why we spoil ourselves from time to time. We feel comfortable doing things which add quality and beauty to life.”– Andrew Matthews
Because learning to really love and accept yourself prepares you to love and accept others; will you really believe the person who says “I love you’ if you don’t love you?
“I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.”— Roy Croft
If you do not feel uplifted and embellished in a relationship, it isn’t a loving one. Period.
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”— Lao Tzu
Love is dangerous territory and not for the faint of heart. It can get lonely, and dark, and scary.
“The best proof of love is trust.”— Joyce Brothers
Which is why you need an accurate compass, a trust compass, that points the way when you feel lost in the woods. If you don’t learn the art of trust, you will never learn the art of love.
“And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make.”— Paul McCartney
Because at the end of your life, when you’ve navigated through the forest of your life, you will take with you nothing—not your bank balance or comfortable home or professional accolades.
You will take only the love you learned to give and receive.
But no chocolates or balloons.
Love is bigger than that.
“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
— Morrie Schwartz
