I honestly cannot believe I didn't find time to write this post on Valentine's Day. It must have been because I was entirely too caught up in the day itself to do so.
Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday. Shocker, I know. However, it is not because it is a day about chocolate, a day about surprises, or a day about your significant other. I admire valentine's day because it is a day set aside for love. Love in all forms.
I have found comfort recently in giving. I know that there is a significant part of me that is always wanting, always needing, always having the desire to be Loved or feel Loved or experience Love. The problem with this is that I can get so caught up in it that I forget what Love is. Love is not self seeking. It is not envious. It does not boast. It is not proud. I need desperately to remember that Love is needed just as much to be received as it is to be given, and that it is so much bigger than receiving and giving. That is why I love Valentine's Day. It reminds me to admire Love in everything that it is to me.
How incredible is it that humanity knows affection? It knows pain? It knows joy? We have created this word: Love. It is often called the greatest human pursuit, the greatest human perplexity, and the greatest human downfall. We talk of it so often and say it drives so much that we do, and yet we never cease to try and understand it. So many of us brush it off, we take it for granted, we think of it in ideals as opposed to accepting every side of it. I hold great sadness in my heart for what "love" has come to mean for many people in my life. For some it is a source of pain. For some it is an anomaly that has come to permanently elude them. Some have intentionally eluded it altogether.
Here is my charge: I challenge the world to view Love courageously. Look at it, and do not only see what you wish to see, but see it with a whole heart and an open mind. I'm not just discussing intimacy--I mean Love. Go back through my posts and try to see Love in all of these different ways. What would that change about you? Would it make you a more widely accepting person? Would it make you a more wise person? Would it shed light on the darkest and most mysterious areas of your life? Love is a daunting task to discover. We may not like what we find. We may feel exposed and convicted. But in so many ways can that liberate us.
What would it look like if you woke up every morning and instead of choosing joy--happiness--sadness--anger--motivation--pursuit--desire---you chose love? You chose to discover Love?
"Sometimes, the heart sees what is invisible to the eye."
Through Love we have a limitless ability to see within ourselves, to see within others, and to see within our lives and how they connect fully and deeply to one another. Love should never be stagnant or waiting--it should always be growing and moving and shaping us into the people we were meant to be. It is a verb just as much as it is a noun, ladies and gentlemen.
If, at the end of your life, you were put on trial, being convicted of "Love", would there be enough evidence to proclaim you guilty as charged? How would you explain yourself? What would you present as the key piece of evidence that shows you knew Love, were Love, discovered Love?
The reason I say all of these things is because recently I have developed a difficult sadness. I say difficult only because it is difficult in its complexity. I was not sure what it was that was troubling me, or making me feel dissatisfied with this point in my life. However, the more that I think about it, I realize that it is because Love has been displaced in my life. It has taken a backseat to anxiety, worry, obligation, busyness, stress--the list can go on. I realize that I have not taken the time to appreciate discovery in my life--to appreciate the beautiful journey I have set upon by pursuing Love here. Someone once said to me, "Joy is found in extracting the happiness from common things." I used to view life with a joyful simplicity--taking it day by day, step by step, moment to moment. But, in the days recently, I have shifted my view to the future. I have burdened myself and clouded my heart's desire for learning and growth and joy with unnecessary and painfully temporary matters. Valentine's Day made me realize how much I had changed in that regard. It made me wonder, why am I not living every day for Love? For discovery? For the breathtaking simplicity that comes with clever observation and intimate scrutiny?
Now is the time to shift my view. And, praise the Lord, I am sure this is not the last time I will be in need of refocusing.
Love is daily. Love is always. Love is never ending as long as you keep discovering.
