Tonight I was listening to the radio call-in show, Open Air with Cheri Huberand was so struck by one of the conversations Cheri had with a caller. The topic was “falling in love with love.”
The way I heard this was that instead of falling in love with some object of our desire, we can actually choose to be in love with love itself. And we don’t have to rely on some chance or grace in order to feel that love. We can make it happen.
Cheri suggested that it is possible to “fall in love with the love we are already in.” Yes! She said that often we mistake the way things work and we think that it is some magic that happens that allows us to “fall in love.” And that same magic can just disappear. But actually, the act of falling in love can be intentional. We can consciously “fall” in love — with someone we’ve known and loved for years, with a place we’ve lived a long time, with a hobby, with a garden, with a musical instrument, awareness practice, you name it.
Think about it. How many times do we fall in love with a person or place or thing. At first we are giddy with joy. Nothing is wanting. Nothing could be better. Life is grand. We focus on the object of our love and before too long we start to find something wrong with that person, place, or thing. Sometimes once we start seeing something wrong, that’s all we can see. From there, we may lose sight of the love all together.
But if we fall in love with love … then we are taking deliberate steps to place ourselves squarely in an open place in which we are looking for what’s right. We are looking for life’s thrill. We are looking for the joy and thump-thump of our hearts.
What would it be like to be in love all the time? Wouldn’t it be fun to try?!