I

Love is not static.

Nor is it containable in a box, cage, golden band or plastic packet.

Love is not a conditional offer that requires you to reduce or upgrade your true self to be a beneficiary.
It never withholds itself as punishment, nor does it leave you out in the cold.
It doesn’t come with a list of “only if…” or “only when.”
It has no small print. No hidden performance clause.

It’s not just for those with the right social graces, who always say exactly the right thing.
Nor is it reserved for those who appear to be living their highest purpose or feeling perfectly ‘aligned’.
Love isn’t just for those with their ducks in a row or their morning routines nailed.
It isn’t awarded only to those who dress well, speak well, and carry the “right kind of energy.”

Love is not a one-off lump sum,
left in a savings account to passively accrue interest.

II

Love is an action.

Love is living, changing, moving, growing.
It requires nurturing and care.

Love must be chosen;
over anger,
over fear,
and over and over again.

Love doesn’t desert.
It is your home base.

It stands alongside pain,
amongst challenge,
present in the messy, mucky, gloomy moments.

It’s not always convenient, nor does it arrive when planned. Love breaks The Rules.

You still deserve it when
your skin feels thin,
your temper frays,
your patience is stretched.
When confusion is rife
and your faith feels like it’s drying up.

It will stick around when your hair is unwashed and you forgot to load the dishwasher.

Love revels in your weirdness,
softens your awkwardness,
and is excited to share your wonder with the world.

It acknowledges your complexity;
allows you contradictions and changes of mind.

It forgives you for being imperfectly human.

Real love wears rose-tinted glasses without denial,
actively looking for the best and giving the benefit of the doubt.

It sheds and rewrites old truths, stories and beliefs
to make space for deeper shades of itself.

Love extinguishes anger,
soothes pain, loneliness and fear.

When we are at our weakest, love is often at its strongest.

We can fight with love. Campaign with love. Passionately disagree with love.

Love allows truth without cruelty,
and justice without hate.

It feels warm; a golden, oscillating orb.
It rides on heartbeats, leaving rainbow trails spiralling around your chest. 
Its thick velvet cape cushions the blows that inevitably come.

It’s playful, curious and deliciously satiating.
It soothes with tender touch and
endures long after a heart stops beating.

Love explores your inner landscape by candle and floods darkened rooms with light.
Love has an inexhaustible curiosity and desire to understand.
It finds forgotten treasure and carries weary spirits.

‘Love is touching souls’, as Joni said. Surely then, you must first allow your own to rise to the surface; let it be seen, felt, reached for?

Love is essential. It is life.
It is medicine.

You need not wait for it.

Generate it.
Create it.
Practise it.
Embody it.
Share it.

You are love.