To Love

“A heart to love, and in that heart, courage, to make love known.” ~ Shakespeare

Because of Valentine’s Day, I suppose, February seems like a month to focus on love. Although I try to live from love in each moment, during this month I make a conscious effort, demonstrating outwardly and working inwardly.

We learn at a young age how we are to behave on Valentine’s Day. There are those “years when my mother insisted that I give one of those cute animal-holding-a-heart cards to every child in my class so no one would feel left out. Where was the meaning, the honesty, in sending Tommy Robinson- the dark-haired, wild-eyed, pint-sized hooligan who regularly mowed me over on the playground- a card declaring I wanted to make him ‘My Valentine?’ First lesson: Coerced expressions of affection don’t mean much.” (Oriah Mountain Dreamer)

Inspired by Oriah’s words I too believe that even though we know that Valentine’s Day has been exploited by the commercial world that we live in, we can still use this day to centre ourselves on self-love, friend love, love of nature, romantic love, all love. I have deliberately worked at spending this entire month focused on love, by reminding myself to breathe deeply and easier and attend to my feelings until those feelings are love. Sometimes it is easy to do, like when I am working with young children. Sometimes it is more challenging, like when my daughter’s basketball coach yells. What I’ve learned is that I can only control how I behave and that if I am squeezed, I can choose what will come out of me. If something other than love spills out, I know that I need to work more inwardly, acknowledging and honouring my feelings that have emerged. However, in order to heal and come from a place of authenticity, I need to fully understand and know what surrounds those feelings as well as how to resolve them, so as to return to that love once again.

As many of you know, I meditate several times a day from short little 15-second meditations to longer more directed ones. After I run, which too is a form of meditation for me, I engage in a guided one. During this past month, I’ve been steered by Marianne Williamson’s, Prayer for the Beloved, placing my bond with Brent in God’s hands asking that I be a blessing on his body and soul, that he be a blessing on mine and that we be a blessing on the world.

Thank you…

~ Ellyn