Love Sweet Love

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love/It's the only thing that there's just too little of/What the world needs now is love, sweet love,/No, not just for some but for everyone.” - Burt Bacharach and Hal David

The people I admire, like, really admire, smile a lot. They make people around them feel good about themselves. They inspire people to be their best selves. They forgive easily. I almost never see them ruffled or riled up. They don’t take things personally. They do their thing and let everyone else do their thing. They coexist.

And they’re not doormats. They’re not fa la la fiddling while Rome burns types either. Some of them are politically active. Some of them are world leaders, industry leaders, major philanthropists, academics, scientists, doctors, or gardeners, house cleaners, mothers, fathers, teachers.

What they do for a living or vocation is not important. All work is noble. All people are noble, have the capacity to be noble, whether or not they’re acting from that place at any given moment. I believe that, even after everything.

And I believe in you, and I believe in myself. I believe I can do better at looking at the world through love-colored glasses more consistently, at coming at my daily interactions and endeavors from that feeling of safety, protection, security, coexistence.

And I believe I can do better at taking care of myself in a way that fosters that loving, peaceful, potent state of being. Just like elite athletes pay attention to their inputs to ensure proper performance, my choices about everything affect how I feel, affect my ability to live in the world like the kind of person I admire day-to-day.

I’m making better choices, more consistently, and closing that knowing-doing gap more consistently. But it’s progress, not perfection. I’m gonna keep going.

Happy New Year