Love is Spoken Here

In my work, people often come to me wondering what their soul’s “mission” is.  Sometimes they’re hunting for a very specific label or task – a job per se – as though there was a cosmic personnel director handing out assignments with detailed specs. Alas, it doesn’t quite work like that.

But if you know anything at all about me, you know I’m on a not-very-secret mission to spread love widely and encourage others to do so as well. I’m powered by heart energy. And so, if for no other reason, today is certainly one of my favorite days. A socially sanctioned love celebration.

I have a great fondness for vintage valentines and the little love-message missive aspect of Valentine’s Day.  One of the things I love is making valentines to send, and infusing each one with love and blessings as I think about the person to whom it is addressed. Such a simple thing, but it’s a devotional practice for me, and it makes my heart happy.

I really encourage you to let go of any limited stories you might have, consigning this holiday to a couples-only restriction, or blasting it for being the heavily commercialized consumer ploy. What if we simply embraced it as a celebration devoted to heart-centeredness? Certainly we can all get behind that. We all have hearts – let’s celebrate them.

A balanced heart is open and flowing – willing to receive back the good it gives out.  It’s a reminder to love yourself and others with compassion and generosity.  Our hearts carry deep wisdom, and when we tune into them we are gifted with so much more than our chattering minds would have us believe is possible.  What’s your heart telling you?

We’re living in interesting times and one in which I think we’re called to meet with more heart energy than ever before.  A lot of people are finding it tricky, and one of the curious ironies I’m finding is that people are struggling with finding a place for self-love. It can be that they’re overwhelmed and in wanting to respond to all in the world that needs their compassion and action, it simply feels almost selfish to dedicate time and energy to self love.  Or it could also be that there’s a backlash brewing that’s eager to label self-love as narcissism – and who doesn’t want to steer clear of being labeled a narcissist?  But the truth is, at least in my eyes, we must love both ourselves and others. In balance. In wholeness.  I think Rumi offers some beautiful direction for navigating now:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

And for all the times when we’re not feeling we’re enough, I take comfort from these lines from poet Maya Stein:

“Imagine, despite your unbearable faults and fissures,

you are still a thing of beauty, a rare creature, a snowflake,

a singular spectacular atom circumnavigating the tangled astronomy

of your life the only way you know how…”

On this celebrated day of love, I send you blessings. May your heart be filled with the knowing that you are loved and appreciated for the beauty of who you truly are. For how you shine and shimmer from your inner core and for how you send that beautiful energy outward. My heart is filled with gratitude and appreciation for the connection you have to my life, to my heart, to me.

How are you celebrating your heart today?  Do tell – you know I love to hear.