February 2010 – Love is all there is

What do you LOVE to do?  What is it that makes time fly easily and effortlessly?  Are you doing that now in your life?

If not, what would it take for you to do more of what you LOVE and less of what you don’t love?

Last month, we talked about the creative process, planting seeds of your ideas and nurturing them.  Love is one of the most powerful nourishments you can supply to any idea or project.

Think about what you love.  Are you spending time every day doing it or working toward it?

Can you carve out time from your hectic schedule to do something you love every day?  Even a few minutes of pure bliss can be very powerful. Obviously, even more is better.

For some people, their "love" is their work or their business or their profession.  For many more, their "love" is a hobby, their family, a sports activity, being with a special friend, working on a special project, learning a skill, honing a talent or solving a puzzle.

Each person has a particular "life task" that fits with who they are.  That "life task" or "life purpose" might be what they work at to make money.  Or, it might be something that has nothing to do with making money – it’s just something that totally absorbs them and gives them joy whenever they do it.

Mother Teresa loved helping people.  Her bliss showed on her face when she was doing what she loved to do.  

Singers, dancers, actors and musicians become so engrossed that they lose all sense of time and space when they are doing what they love.  They don’t mind the hard work that would send most of us running for the exit.

Crafts people and artists who create beauty do the same thing – becoming completely involved in what they are creating, without regard to the time or effort it takes.  Their work seems to flow without effort.

Great teachers love what they do and feel joy whenever they see a child respond to their teaching.

Great writers allow words to flow out from their heart onto pages of paper (or today, most likely into the innards of a computer.)

Do you have that special "something" in your life?  If so, nurture it and be sure to allow yourself to do it every day or at least often enough that you feel the love and joy fill you and enrich you.

If you don’t have something like that in your life, try to find something that is so compelling that you forget where you are when doing it.  The burst of energy released by such activity can transform your entire life and your relationships.  If it is something that makes you money, that's great.  If not, well, maybe there is a way to incorporate some portion of that "love" into whatever you do to make money.  Then, it becomes like rich nourishment for other areas of your life.

Maybe some of you are thinking that you love to do something, but you’re not very good at it or it never seems to amount to very much.  Doesn’t matter.  Whatever you love doing is worth doing.  Do more of it.  You are the only one who matters in this exercise.

Love is all there is.

To honor Valentine's Day this month, here's one of my favorite poems:

Love

There is no difficulty
    that enough Love will not conquer;
No disease
   that enough Love will not heal;
No door
   that enough Love will not open;
No gulf
   that enough Love will not bridge;
No wall
   that enough Love will not throw down;
No sin
   that enough Love will not redeem.

It makes no difference
    how deeply seated may be the trouble,
How hopeless the outlook,
How muddled the tangle,
How great the mistake.

A sufficient realization of Love will dissolve it all.

If only you could Love enough
   you would be the happiest
   and most powerful being in the world.

... Emmett Fox