Love and Gratitude

Love is gratitude for our existence — the opportunity to not only feel our own joy, but also to share in the joy that others create. It is being genuinely happy for the success and good fortune of those around us, and finding richness in diverse realities, unique beliefs, and new perspectives.

Love is a deep appreciation for opportunities, support, respect, challenges, humor, and pain. Pain is often the unwanted yet clear teacher of truth, and life provides all these experiences for our benefit.

Love is gratitude for all things, even the ones we fear. It is our choice to take from each experience or relationship the lesson we seek. We may label these experiences as neutral, negative, or positive — but it is not what happens to us, rather what we choose to do with what happens, that shapes our reality and character.

Love because you can. Be thankful and deliberate in giving love. Equally, be courageous and vulnerable enough to receive it.

Love without thought of acknowledgment or need for love in return is pure freedom — a well of infinite inner peace.

Unconditional love liberates us from our own blame, judgment, and desire to control.

Pause, reflect, acknowledge your fears — and all that remains is love.

Namaste — Chris Leigh-Smith