One of the great joys of my life is collecting stories of the ways soulmates meet and come together. It’s pretty empowering to realize that even the most mystical, magical encounters required the soon-to-be lovers to take action—to deliberately put themselves in the “right place at the right time.”
Love has been described as an intangible connection between two people that feels exceptionally good and yet, the word and experience of love, cannot be easily defined.
There is wild, crazy “being in love,” and there is the love of a child, friends, family, pets, co-workers, neighbors, community, etc. Then there is “divine love” and connection to God, Goddess or whatever higher power you subscribe to.
If you are seeking to feel loved, cherished, adored, supported with a devoted partner, the truth is there are many potential partners if you eliminate things that truly will not contribute to your long-term happiness because meditation and yoga and working on yourself relentlessly are zero indication of someone’s actual values.
My belief is that there can be great attraction from opposites as long as there is also connection, compatibility, chemistry, clear communication and a shared vision for the future with that person.
Sometimes it can be hard to tell if your relationship is actually headed for the rocks. Or you might suspect that, in fact, it’s already over. But is it just a normal part of a relationship to be in conflict sometimes? How do you know if it’s really in trouble?
The summer I was 18 I was driving down a country road with my mother. This was in the rural county where I grew up and all of the roads were country, the houses spread out over miles, hardly any of them in sight of a neighbor. Driving meant going past an endless stream of trees and fields and wildflowers. On this particular afternoon, my mother and I came upon a yard sale at a big house where a very old woman lived alone, her husband dead, her kids grown and gone.
Have you ever had an argument or a heated discussion and your partner says, “I get it?” It feels good in the moment but you really don’t think they do get it. Nor do they like what you’re saying. And they may not be ready to move on from the conversation.
Way back when my mom told me that she’d always be with me, it didn’t occur to me that the story I’d most long to tell would be about my love for her, my grief over her too-young death, my gratitude for her light in my life. I didn’t know that part of the way I’d make her present in her absence would be that I’d share her with others through my writing. That I’d make her alive in the hearts and minds of people she never met.
One of my favorite celebrities and actors, Jennifer Aniston won me over with a particularly powerful interview she gave Oprah Winfrey in 2005, a month after a very publicized separation, with tabloids filling up with irreverent stories on a matter that could not have been more personal. An epiphany that Aniston shared in the interview …
February is here, bringing with it the excitement and celebration of Valentine’s Day. Whether you are excited about it or not, it’s definitely a day to dive deeper into a real understanding of what love is and why the presence or lack of it creates such powerful reactions in people of all ages and cultures …
The day my father died, I was at the grocery store buying bananas. I remember thinking to myself, “This is insane. Your dad just died. Why the hell are you buying bananas?” But we needed bananas. We’d be waking up for breakfast tomorrow morning, and there wouldn’t be any bananas—so there I was. And …
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