Practical Love

True Love gets a lot of fanfare on tv and movies. This notion that there is this ONE person out in a world of 7 billion people that is right for you, is such a romantic ideal. But for someone like myself who occasionally plays the Power Ball, with romantic ideas about becoming rich, I have come to realize the absurdity of the odds. If there is only one person for you then it is actually very tragic. I think it could also be very magical, if you are lucky like I am to have come together, against all odds, with the most beautiful, talented compliment to myself-my wife, Cory. We have been together for about 25 years now. Crazy. Wonderful. But as I watch my Mom who, after the death of my Dad, was able to fall in love again, I know that true Love is not about that ONE person. It is, however, about one person. That person is you. True Love resides within. Love must be cultivated. You water it. Feed it. Nurture it within yourself so that you can let it expand outside of yourself. That Lo...

You ever wonder how you would be if love was all you knew? I am going to do that right now. So, starting in the morning, I wake up and think about how lucky I am to be alive. I desperately spring to my feet to find Cory and Celia and Genevieve. How beautiful they look. As my heart is racing, I wonder, what can I do for them. I could let them sleep because they look so angelic. Maybe I should go and make them breakfast, so they awake with the smell of pancakes wafting up the stairs. So I go downstairs and open the shades to let the light in. I pull together all the ingredients for pancakes, especially the chocolate chips and quiet as a mouse, I start cooking. Sure enough, it works like a charm, because just as I set the steaming pancakes on the table, three blurry-eyed girls wander into the breakfast area. Cory's face blossoms into a smile and quietly exclaims, "You made pancakes." I could go on (should for my own sake) but you get it. It is easy to imagine love with y...

It occurred to me today that I have to start this practicing love if I am going to get any better at it. So I set about to only think good thoughts about people today. It was apparently too lofty a goal for me today. Whatever you practice, you do. I don't know why we continue to practice hate, anger, sadness, frustration, jealousy, etc. It comes out. We seem to gravitate to it. Someone says, "Did you hear what she said?" and we perk up and hope it's juicy. "She is such a horrible person!" we may continue. We love this for some reason. Maybe it's because of the same genes that make us laugh every time someone falls down. Anyway, whatever the reason, it is something to fight against. But I don't want to say fight against, because that too has a negative connotation. It is something to supplant. You see we have two natures, human and spirit. I don't care what religion you practice or don't. You have to feel this spirit within you or recogniz...