Falling in Love

One of the great mysteries in life is the exhilaration that comes from falling in love. Every cell in the body vibrates with new love. The heart bursts with energy, the mind swells with dreams and the physical senses become heightened. No wonder we’re seduced by the magic of falling in love!

Try something different. Flip the cliché “love is life” to “life is love.” Instead of dreaming of love with another, why not fall in love with life? Being in love with life is a completely different experience, even though the heart, mind and body engage in similar ways. Being in love with life means to be in touch with it and to be deeply touched by all that it holds—the miracles, mysteries, beauty and abundance. It also includes the peaks and lows, the complexity and simplicity, the profound and the mundane, the light and the dark.

Connect with the small things, too—a leaf falling from a tree, the sound of a hummingbird and the sparkle in a child’s eyes. Smell the rain, feel the wind and let the sun kiss your face. Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Looking deeply at an orange, you realize it is nothing less than a miracle.”

This state of love is also a miracle. When we spread seeds of love, we also water the seeds within us and everything begins to flow with a rhythm that is in tune with life. Swimming upstream turns into a fading memory from the past. Maya Angelou described it well: “Love life, engage in it, give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.”

Go forward this year and experiment. Feast on your life and give back your heart to itself. Remember, life is a lover that will never abandon you until it’s the end.