What Happens When You Fall in Love With Life

 

"Do you think you can improve the world?

I don't think it can be done."

-Lao-Tzu

 

 

 

An old friend sent me the quote above via Pinterest this week.  Isn't it great?  Before I started this blog (which I am committing to for the calendar year) I had another blog which you can read here:

 

http://www.lavidacelestial.blogspot.com/

 

Here is my favorite post from that time in my life.  I titled it: FIRST LOVE LIFE.  It was written almost 4 years ago, but it feels like a lifetime ago.  At that time I was married and was processing my brother's tragic death.  Somehow I came up with the following.  I hope it speaks to you.

 

First, love life. The rest will follow. Love life, love yourself. Your pulse, your breath. Love your courage and faith, your beauty, your hopeless and unending faults. Love these things. Because at least you are alive.
When you love, love fully. Don’t hold back. And when you lose, let loose. It was never yours to keep. This is the nature of everything. Spring turns to summer and summer turns to fall. And we all fall down. But all around you at any given time are a million saving graces waiting to pick you up. We are saved. Saved from ourselves by life. A clouded sky, a gentle smile, a song on the radio. You can’t stop life. Birth comes, death comes, it was never ours to keep. You can’t stop the winter from coming. And why would you want to? A life with no darkness is blinding. Winter turns to spring, spring turns to summer. You can’t stop the ocean from flowing.
We exhale to make room for more breath. We build things up just to have them washed away. We are alive. And we feel that life in the forest, in the breath of wind on our face. The city, too, has a pulse. We see life all around us. We see life in the pigeons with their dazzling, purple-grey feathers, and life in the pigeon shit. To love life is to love the sun on your face, but also the freezing darkness at your back. Life is the long, lonely night, and the gently beckoning dawn.
Do not be afraid of life. Love it. Love it with your whole heart because it only happens once. The only thing more terrible than the long, dark night is being so dead that you can’t tell the sun from the shadows.
First love life and everything will take care of itself. Life proceeds according to its own perfection. In this moment, everything is perfect. Don’t worry. Don’t cut yourself with useless fears. First, love life