To Love Well

Because I'm injecting more juice into my life lately, I look for the "Strawberries," as my friend Mary calls them. The little moments that give life more meaning, the moments that feel like they're meant just for me, the ones that go unnoticed, unless I do. I'm weaving those moments into my every day to see where they take me.

Yesterday, I read an article about a Zen teacher Shapiro who softens the hearts and minds of people transitioning from our physical world back to the spiritual realm. He says, people want to know they were loved and that they loved well.

And then without thought, "All you need is love... love is all you need," flows through my head.

Here's the Strawberry: reading my Mindfulness magazine this morning as I am deciding what to write here, and whose name jumps at me from a wonderfully-written article by writer Stefanie ? Shapiro. Where an inside chuckle and chalk tick of happenstance used to suffice, I now draw connections and walk the tightrope of directed thinking. So I guess I'm supposed to write about love.

My friends proved their love to me again this past week with several birthday get-together's that warmed my heart. And love does not run short in my family. Where I see I can improve is loving on others better. I build walls like my German ancestors did, and to protect me from what? I don't know, but I feel I must have them.

What do I think is going to happen to me, what am I going to lose if I give all the love that I can to all the people I know, or encounter, have yet to know, seek out to know, and maybe that's the problem? Is it that too much scares me I will not be abundant enough or that abundance will wear me out? I believe my answer is in the latter, but why am I allowing a What If to rule my Now?

Dakota Soulshine scares the shit out of me. I don't know what or who she is yet, nor what I'm supposed to do with her. Ideas give me some hope. Best to follow the Strawberries seemingly guiding me these days, feeling more led than following, getting ready to lead.