​As we journey inward, we may be urged to examine the true nature of our relationships. Seldom do they resemble the photos on greeting cards depicting lovers passionately entwined before a glorious sunset. In real life, our relationships are full of ups and downs, periods of challenge balanced with periods of great joy. If anything, these periods are our greatest teachers. 
 
Our personal journey to awakened living is validated not by being alone, but in relationship with others. Learning how to love, teaches us how to live.

The older we get the more we may realize that not much in life matters if we don't have love. Love of family and friends. Love of work and creative expression. Love of the Earth and her bounty. Love of growth and the opportunity to be all that we can be. But in order to receive this love, we must have an open heart. We must be able to fully give love, too.
 
Today let us re-dedicate ourselves to living with wide-open hearts as best we can; to not shut down or close off to others; to not judge or discriminate or neglect. Let us extend ourselves to others as best we can. Let us live with unconditional friendliness toward all beings, both animal and human. Let us we be kind.
 
This is a life worth living, one rooted in love.

©2023, Janice L. Lundy
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These days, this is very much where I find myself:

The older we get the more we may realize that not much in life matters if we don't have love. Love of family and friends. Love of work and creative expression. Love of the Earth and her bounty. Love of growth and the opportunity to be all that we can be. But in order to receive this love, we must have an open heart. We must be able to fully give love, too.
 
Today let us re-dedicate ourselves to living with wide-open hearts as best we can; to not shut down or close off to others; to not judge or discriminate or neglect. Let us extend ourselves to others as best we can. Let us live with unconditional friendliness toward all beings, both animal and human. Let us we be kind.
 
This is a life worth living, one rooted in love.

Love naturally resides within you. It is ever present. You do not have to actively search for it, combing the world for the perfect partner to have it. It may sound trite but it takes diving into your own depths to pull up the love that is there to get the love that you’ve always wanted.

Begin by showering it upon yourself; accepting yourself in all your pain and glory as a sacred being having a very human (and sometimes painful) experience of life. Then, as you begin to fill your own well with love, more love will bubble up, like water from a natural spring. From there, it will organically flow out from you and into the world for others to feel. They will want to be close to it, desire to drink of it themselves. 
 
The cycle of love flows most sincerely from self to others and back to self again.

​©2023, Janice L. Lundy

In choosing thoughts, feelings and actions, we have two sources from which to operate—love or fear. 

In any situation, we can ask ourselves, "Am I feeling this way, speaking and acting from a place of love or fear?"

By simply stepping back, releasing ourselves briefly from the emotional charge of the moment, we can better assess our motivation. 

A deep breath can bring insight and restore the connection to our heart center, which always operates from love through Spirit. 

The only real choice is Love.

​Love is the key. 

Each of us has experienced a broken heart many many times. Our hearts break due to disappointment, betrayal and loss.

As we suffer in this way, our hearts shatter wide open, bleed and experience immeasurable pain. As a survival mechanism, we quickly try to repair the cracks, to cement them shut to stop the hurt. 

However, it is only through the broken heart that we learn to love. 

It is specifically through its wide open crevices that we let love come in and allow love to go out. If the cracks have been mended shut, we cannot do either. 


©2023, Janice L. Lundy
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