leaving love notes

When you leave an evening love note on the bathroom mirror for your fella to find in his early morning routine....

...you might then wake up to pretty adorable reply.
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In case you can't decipher his writing: "Hey, You're a total Baberaham Lincoln.... <----Abe's beard"

Maybe it's because Valentine's Day is right around the corner (a silly, made-up holiday indeed), but I've been thinking a lot lately on how to better express my gratitude for B's love and partnership. This is, after all, a lifestyle blog about gratitude! It is amazing to continue realizing just how right all of the relationship experts of our time, and years past have been: this kind of sustainable love takes work. It takes both of us remembering to administer attention, affection, and appreciation regularly. It takes tiny gestures, sweet surprises, "doing" efforts and "being" efforts.  It takes courageously vocalizing Hey, this is what I'm needing from you, and the patience and openness to hear those needs as an observer, and not a judge. It takes acknowledging that these needs and our people will not likely remain the same through all chapters of life because we, too, will not likely remain the same. At their core, of course, they are the ones we have chosen, always. At our cores, we know who we are and what we want from a fulfilled life. And if we are lucky, these changes together and as individuals will serve for positive growth within us and before us. If we are really lucky (which, humbly, I feel that I am), it will be one hell of an incredible adventure to span over a lifetime.

I've said it many times before, but we (B + I) are not perfect at any of these things. Yet, possibly the biggest piece of the gratitude puzzle for me, is witnessing the transformation in us both each time we hunker down to do the work. Many days it is easy peasy -- light lifting, if you will. Others, as natural as can be -- no effort required as we match each other's rhythm. And still others, an extremely conscious effort requiring every last bit of energy we have for the day (or the week). That's just the nature of love, I suppose, and not just in the romantic sense. Love is our natural state of being -- but the world is a bit of crazy place (oofda, ain't that an understatement), and it's important we remember to practice and implement and return to this natural state as much as possible: it's important we remember to do the work for our partners, our children, our families, our communities, our earth, our humanity and YES, always, for ourselves. 


I can't think of anything else more worth doing. And being.

How about you?


In Gratitude,

Trish

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