Falling in Love with Life
Love transcends and includes.
The more I love, the more joyful, healthy, and whole I become.
Honestly, when I look back over my nearly 49 years of life, it really is as simple as that. The larger my circle of love grows, and the more I give and receive love, the better life gets. And, I don’t just mean for me, but for everyone! In other words …
Love for a person, animal, or _____, imbues us with a spirit of care, compassion, and kindness toward them. It leads us to lift them up, so to speak. And this upward spiral has a ripple effect. Acts of lovingkindness, no matter the size, inspire further acts of lovingkindness. Love, in this way, is like an avalanche. It starts small, but catches more and more people up in its embrace, and grows ever larger.
I believe this is because:
Love is the heartbeat of the universe, the nature of reality, and humanity’s purpose.
With that in mind, this is the last post in a series on Aligning with Love. The first one was about why love is the path to flourishing, as well self-love. The second went into loving those we regularly interact with. Last week’s was on growing our love muscles to include strangers, the marginalized, and even enemies. And today’s is about falling in love with life and the Source of it all.
So, what does it mean to fall in love with life? It starts by progressively relaxing into and realizing the fundamental goodness and beauty to “this”. It’s a surrendering to the notion that:
The Universe is on your side.
Life is pro us.
God—or whatever you name the Magical Mystery Behind and Within All—loves each of us abundantly, gratuitously, and always (literally).
As a person who walked the brutal heartbreak and soul despair of divorces I didn’t want (twice), should have died in 2008 because of a freakish fall off a cliff, lost a career I loved and excelled at because of that accident, tried and “failed” to become a pastor, and is disabled in several ways and can’t drive—please know—I don’t write those things lightly. Honoring that hurtful and bad things happen to us all, I also know, the more I trust the three statements above, the Truer they are in my life. It's a journey I invite you to join!
At its most elemental and essential level, it seems to me this is what “faith” means. Or, as Michael Franti playfully sings: “Life is amazing, then it sucks, then it’s amazing again!”
Serendipitously, as I listened to the song, he both sang about my next topic, and reminded me of another key aspect to falling in love with life/all/God. And can I just pause to ask and offer: What does it tangibly mean to love “God” exactly? I find it’s, at least, choosing to approach and engage each moment, person, animal, experience, plant, etc. with lovingkindness. What do you think? I’m honestly super interested to hear from you!
I’d be grateful to know, in part, because:
Gratitude is like a drug that gets you high on life. Only, it’s absolutely free, and the only side-effect is that it will rewire your brain for joy, peace, kindness, and compassion.
A regular practice of gratitude is the gateway drug to falling deeply in love with life. At the lowest point in my existence—the darkest night of my soul—someone I followed invited people to take a few minutes each day to write three things they were grateful for. While the “challenge” was for a month; the healing, wholeness, and thriving it manifested inside me were so profound, I kept doing it for years! And now, we practice it daily as a family when we sit down for dinner.
The things we regularly think and do, whether consciously or not, progressively shape us. Making a habit of thanksgiving, then, leads to an attitude of gratitude, which brings you into the transcendent space of wonder and awe. Along those lines, I invite you to consider three things.
We know from the laws of physics that matter cannot be destroyed. This means, your body is literally made of star “dust”. What is more, when you breathe in, you are inhaling particles exhaled by people who lived long ago—like the Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Joan of Arc, Julian of Norwich, and beyond. How crazy cool is that!?
Your body is comprised of TRILLIONS of cells harmoniously working together with billions of bacteria to somehow form “you”. But, as if that wasn’t miraculous enough, your body is not you! Because YOU, can step-back and observe what is going on in your physical self.
What is more, at the cellular and atomic level, nearly every bit of your body is completely different every few years, yet, somehow, you are still you!
In other words:
You are a miracle and a masterpiece!
I invite you to read that a few times and really let it sink in, because it’s true. And the more we see that in ourselves, the more we are able to spot it in others. Now, I don’t know if you ever practice meditation or not, but perhaps its greatest gift is that it reminds us of the awesomeness of life.
Meditation may seem daunting, but it’s really not complicated. It’s simply taking a bit of time to do whatever brings you into the here and now. You see, when we worry about what tomorrow will bring and/or dwell upon our yesterdays, we leave love. Why? Because: Love, as well as the fullness of life, is only in the here and now.
One of yoga’s practices and mental dispositions is Santosha. Generally translated “contentment”, I experience it as loving all of life as it is, while simultaneously harnessing that love to create and cultivate the shifts and changes necessary to bring us all into ever-greater flourishing.
With that in mind, I hope, wish, and pray for us to collectively fall ever deeper into love with life together.
Hugs & Love,
Lang (aka “Dr. Love”)