There is nothing more powerful in sustaining us through life and “keeping us afloat” than love. Love is the core of every religion and spiritual tradition. The buoyancy of love not only keeps us afloat, it lightens us, makes us resilient, and inspires us to rise and shine in life.

Birds and bees and butterflies. The hovering hummingbird with its flickering iridescence of shimmering emerald dipping for the nectar. The lore of love is riddled with this lightness of being. It lifts us into flights of fancy, carries us on visible and invisible currents of wonder, of wind and water. It lifts us out of the burdens of purpose and plans and places us in life, restoring our rhythm with grace and gratitude.

The lightness of love is an inner experience that changes the outer world. It is not just the face of the beloved, the winged heart can take flight at the shape of a knothole in a door or the giddy feeling of a hand well-played. All petty annoyances take leave and you find ease in delight. The world becomes an unexpected gift, freely given, to which, if you drop all claims and pretense of undeserving, you give yourself freely. You become aware of the strange paradox of life and love: Life, being itself, did not need you but it so loved you, it seeded you, birthed you, bears you, and carries you all the way through to the end.