Love

What is one thing that makes us undeniably human? The ability to feel. This ranges from anger, amusement, guilt, contentment, fear, ecstasy, sorrow, everything. There is no happiness without sadness, triumph without failure, growth without discomfort, or life without death. In order to understand my humanity, I need to realize all emotions are necessary, inevitable, and quite literally the very things that make me human.

Now, what is the most powerful emotion a human can feel? Love. If our humanity is based on and driven by feeling, and the greatest most euphoric feeling we can achieve is love, isn’t that the answer to all of life’s questions? The answer is love. To love and to be loved. Love isn’t just falling for someone. Love is self-care, love is friendship, love is forgiving, love is checking in, love is kindness, love is taking care of our planet, love is gratitude, love is understanding, and love is everywhere. In my daily actions and in my thoughts.

Believing that life is about love doesn’t mean that I’m suggesting a perfectly happy reality is right around the corner. It just means that I make a daily promise to myself to choose love as much as possible. I am a human. Of course I can’t abandon all other feelings for an experience solely full of love, but I can teach my brain to default to love quicker and more automatically when the hard emotions come.

What if I choose love? A deep love for every passing moment as it goes by. Chatting with a friend, the tasty scent of garlic cooking, playing uno, drawing a picture, listening to music in the car, and even love for the hard times. Even love for those who haven’t been the nicest. We all know how hard it is to be a human sometimes. Love is in the journey. The laughs, the silence. Love is embracing the present like no other with joy and acceptance and gratitude. And that’s when life’s mysteries taste the sweetest and the struggles get easier. Yes, there will be bad days and to spend all day joyous is much easier said than done, but all I can do is try. The more I recognize that pain only comes from the parallel ability to feel joy, the more I realize every emotion is something to be thankful for. Emotions come and go, deep love and appreciation stay a while.

There is enough hate, the world could always use more love.