If you want to be in love, be in love.

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How would you act differently, if you were in love today?

What would change for you, if next to you sat another human soul — one who helped you find peace, contentment and who filled your heart with joy?

How would you behave today — if you woke up in love and just decided to remain that way?

Would you say a little prayer before wiggling your toes? Open just one eye first to check and see if he or she or they were real?

Would you send a shout out to the Maker? Thank God for the courage to try? After so many failures, mistakes and unanswered whys.

If you were in love today, would you bless the four directions, honor the Great Spirit — give thanks to all creatures great and small? Would you wrinkle your brow, touch the side of your nose, pull your left ear, sprinkle some fairy dust around?

If you were in love today, would you raise your hands to the sky or fall to your knees — praise Jesus, praise Allah? Praise the tarot card reader on West 55th & K Street in New York City?

Would you start your day happy, if you were in love?

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

I’m coming to believe that if you want to be in love, the only thing you must do is be in love, today.

Fall in love with the trees, the stars and the moon, the unexpected and the well-known. Fall in love with cancelled plans, with idle boredom and things that turn out differently than you had planned.

If you want to be in love and you wake up alone, don’t fear — you can be in love by doing all those things you’d normally only do for someone else, for you today— acts of service, surprise gifts, plans for fun adventures.

If you want to be in love and you don’t know where to start, try worshiping the early morning sun, cheering for the crocuses popping up through the snow, watching in awe as birds take flight.

Be in love by giving your full attention to every person you meet, listening intently when they speak. Show compassion, demonstrate affection and take care of the little things — for you or someone else— if you want to be in love.

Photo by Elijah Macleod on Unsplash

Have you ever wondered what makes “being in love” feel so good?

Is it really about the other person? What they do or how they make you feel? What they look like? How they treat you when they’re mad or happy to see you again after a long while?

Does being in love require a certain quality or quantity of things to be given and received? Is it about the flooding of feel-good chemicals in your brain or the dopamine released through cuddling?

What if it feels good to be in love because that’s the way we were meant to be? In love, every day.

If you were in love today, would you stop to buy flowers?

Would you grab a lottery ticket on your way home? Buy a whole damn cake from the grocery store — a little post-coitus treat for you and your love, a celebration of incredible luck.

What would change about you, if you were in love today?

Would you feel more secure? Know that you are wanted, desired — chosen once and for all? Or would you be filled with awkwardness and fear, unsure if this is how love is supposed to feel and certain you’re not doing it right?

If the thought of being in love causes you hesistation or pain, ask why that might be the case.

Does being in love propel you into the unknown? Does it light a fire under your ass? Make you realize how much you still have to learn? How many things you still want to do, all the things you wish you could say?

Is it the act of “being in love” or the other person that allows us to tear down walls, remove the barricades that keep us alone?

Is it really an old love still lingering that keeps you from taking a chance, trying again, being vulnerable and open to change?

Is being in love really ever about anyone else at all?

Or is the ability for each of us to choose to be in love if that’s what we desire, that truly makes us afraid?

If you want to be in love, be in love. With yourself. With your children, your friends — be in love with strangers on line at the store.

Give love because it’s what you were meant to do. Because it makes you feel good, because it increases the good energy in the world.

I’ve come to believe that in order to truly accept that I deserve the love of another, I must first choose to be in love — with me, with them and with the space between us — no matter if I think or know that they feel the same.

In order to give and accept love freely, we must choose to be “in love” regardless of any promises or plans for the future. We must love without the expectation of even one more day.

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Thanks for reading! A couple of claps never hurt anyone either.