The Awesome Experience of Love: Romance is just a Doorway

Most years, i find myself frustrated about Valentine’s Day:
- It sets-up Expectations that almost never get met.
- It stimulates Lonely-pictures for many who are not partnered.
- It feels Invalidating for many long-term partners, who are not in the "constant fireworks" phase…

Here’s a bit of my perspective: Romance is a little pink spoon of Love.
Have you ever gone to an ice-cream shop, and the flavor of the month is interesting, but unknown?
You can ask and receive a little taste, find out it is Delicious, and order More.

In one popular shop, the taste comes on a little pink spoon - and that is how Love is.
We get a taste, and we want more.
More love is great, a never-ending flood of ice cream... ahem, I mean Love, is Great!

Meanwhile, we tend to trip around Love - here’s one way we get off track:
Many of us experience Love when we see puppies playing, children sleeping, our Beloved coming toward us in the moonlight. YUM.
But here’s the rub - these outside connections, relationships, experiences are not the thing - THEY are not the thing - They are fingers pointing to the moon…

Let me be clear: Our connections, relationships, experiences are not Love.  They are a doorway to Love.
We forget this, and we try to Own, to Protect, to Control, to put a Ring on it...
But in the end, we do not end up with the idealized promises of Valentine’s Day.


So, I tend to get frustrated about that, and the sadness and striving many humans in our culture experience around this.
But, funny enough, this year I am appreciating Valentine’s Day more than I ever have.

Why? 
Because behind the Hallmark, Whitman’s, and FTD….
Valentine’s Day helps remind us of the Reality of Love.

Romance is just a Doorway.
Love is sweet, delicious, fulfilling, awesome… and fortunately ubiquitous.
Every day, every minute; Everywhere in/with/for Everyone; Love IS.

We don’t need the perfect partner to savor Love, actually we don’t need a partner at all! 
We can overtly enjoy lots of connections and intimacies with others… or we can be all alone.  It doesn’t matter.
We don’t have to look, act, perform, strive, or succeed in a certain way to be immersed in Love.

Love just IS. 

And we can enjoy it, savor it.
It can lead us, and fill us.
We can be it, share it, and act through it…

So this Valentine’s Day, yes, let’s appreciate the folks that we love, the intimates we savor - yes!
And let’s remember these connections are truly doorways - fingers pointing to the moon - through which we access an experience of Love.
And I pray that we dedicate ourselves to learning and practicing the experience of the True, Boundless, and Awesome Love - in which we Truly live and move and have our Being.

May we be Inspired In Love, this Valentine's Day.
Blessings on your Unique Path!
Wendy

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