Do you believe in love?

loveI do.  I really, really believe in love.  And, that, my friends, is nothing short of a miracle.

What do you believe?  What do you see when you look around?  Are you feeling lonely this Valentine’s Day?  Do you look at all the couples posting pictures on Facebook with their “Valentine” and feel sad or unworthy?  Do you feel like you’re missing something?

I work every day in the shambles of broken promises.  I have a childhood abuse history.  I am a recovering co-dependent.  I could easily say that men are horrible, that love doesn’t exist and that marriage is a torturous institution leading directly to a broken heart.  And, yet, I don’t believe that at all.

I believe we live in abundant love.  My heart has been broken more than once.  But, it healed.  When it healed it was stronger than before.  It was healthier.  I was happier.  My broken hearts revealed my own internal dysfunction.  They allowed me to learn a new way of living.  I have historically made choices which separate me from a functional relationship with the opposite sex.  Does this mean that love doesn’t exist?  Our pain will tell us there is no love, that people are not safe, that everything ends badly, that God is punishing us or that we don’t deserve to be happy.  We should not believe the lies generated by our pain.

The truth is that love really is all around us.  We focus too much on romantic love.  Too often we feel that if we don’t have romantic love, we don’t have love at all.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The most real love we have in our lives has nothing to do with romance – the love between a Mother and a child, the love between true friends, the love we feel in prayer and meditation.  Those are the purest forms of love.  Starting today be ALIVE IN LOVE – Look around you.  See friends who give you a big hug when they see you.  See your child color a picture for you or bring an acorn for your treasure box.  See the empathy in the eyes of someone with a shared history.  Watch people’s faces light up when you enter the room.  See the pride with which a gardener tends the flowers or the excited bark of your dog as you come home from work.  We are drowning in love.  It is, quite literally, all around us.  And, yet, we are so singularly focused on romantic love that we can’t see it.

If this Valentine’s Day you find yourself feeling alone and sad, my wish for you is that you change your focus.  In this moment, there is abundant love.  All we have to do is open our hearts to receive it.  Let this be your focus.  Choose to believe in love.

Photo Credit: seyed mostafa zamani

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