Valentine’s Day. A nice friendly reminder of who you currently love and who is still out there for you to love.
One of the most important lessons I have learned as an adult is the concept of universal love. The ability to love every single person, animal, moment, and experience that I encounter without attachment or judgment. Often, I find that we are taught and conditioned that we should love our family, our friends, our pets, our significant other and that’s it. As if there were limits on how much love exists within us. What a funny notion.
What does that look like for me you ask?
- Smiling and asking the cashier when I am checking out how their day is going.
- Seeing someone on the side of the road struggling who appears to be homeless and sending white light to them to let them know they are not alone.
- Picking up the bug inside of the gym that has accidentally found itself in the crosshairs of a lot of people ready to pump some iron and move some energy and place it safely on a leaf outside.
- Waking up in the middle of the night and feeling my kitten’s paw pressed up against my foot.
- Showing up at my uncle’s house a couple days after Christmas to homemade enchiladas, well water, and time spent listening to my uncle’s camping stories.
- Asking the people who I work-out with regularly how they are doing and really meaning it when I ask.
- Group text threads between my dad’s side of the family with 20 of my first cousins. Fun fact, I have 35 first cousins between my mom and dad’s family!
- Calling my parents weekly and telling them how much I love them and how grateful I am for everything they have taught me.
- Watching my brother work on his house and sending him texts to let him know how proud I am of him.
- My uncle Bob drove me to the airport this past Christmas while we talked about my Grandmother and told him the name I wanted for my daughter and made him pinky promise not to tell anyone.
- Sending coffee gift cards to my friends when they celebrate a work accomplishment.
- Texting someone when they come to mind out of the blue and asking them how they are doing.
- When we explain what Anact means and watching it resonate with someone and their eyes light up.
- Waving at the little girl standing next to me at the ice cream shop.
- Sitting in the sun and letting the UV rays course through my skin to my bones.
- Gratitude for that first feeling when I go underwater in Barton Springs and there is nothing I can remember to do but be present with my breath.
- Running to “XO” by Beyoncé on the hike and bike trail.
- And so much more.
It’s really about being present for me at the end of the day and giving whatever is in front of me my full attention, support, and positivity. I’m not sure if I have this right but I heard a comedian say that love was just lots of vibrating energy and that really stuck with me.
Because never in a million years did I think that I would be 34 years old writing from my 2 bedroom bungalow in Austin, TX with a sustainable towel business. It’s funny how life works. The one thing I can say is that while I long to have a partner in life and a family to raise and pass along the attributes of my family that I love the most… I can’t help but think that the experience of not having that has allowed me to experience a greater love for those around me and in return - receive love from the most unexpected of places.
It’s like the opening line in Love Actually, “Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere.”
Happy Valentine's Day!
Love,
Brianna