A wise sweet friend once told me…

all you have to do to find happiness
is to let the soft animal that is your body
Love what it loves…
and I ask myself today,
what does this soft body of mine love?

I love to love.
I love to sing…
to feel my heart pass up through my throat
out over my tongue and fill the space around me…
I love writing,
allowing the thoughts that come unbidden to me
to travel down through the point of my pencil
sharing my own unique view from the windows of these eyes…
I love growing
growing life within me
growing my soul
I love exploring this Earth
climbing mountains real or imagined.
growing my experiences in this world
that help me to see even just a glimpse
of life in another soul’s shoes.

I love growing seeds,
pushing them gently into the soil,
not too shallow
not too deep
nourishing them with just enough water and food
I love the heat of the sun
on my face
on my gently baking brown shoulders
I even love watching the dark clouds coming across the sky
knowing that mother nature
is about to relieve me of my afternoon garden chores.
I love watching the tiny sprouts
peeking through the dirt.
shy green fingers
feeling their way up through
the darkness of their earthen womb
and then stretching for the sky
wiggling so slowly,
reaching toward the light
I love stretching just like those sprouts
love dancing
moving my body
feeling all the curves of my flesh
and surfaces of skin
the pulse of my heart
pushing life through
and to every edge and corner
of those curves and surfaces…

I love to love
I love breathing.
Being alive…
I haven’t always liked breathing…
I held my breath for years…
slowly suffocating,
drowning in my anxieties.
Today though,
I love this breath…
life force
vital energy,
prana that flows into and through me
I love being a channel
a conduit
a bridge between earth and sky…
as we all are.

I love to love.
I love laughing until I cry
and crying until I laugh
embracing and blurring the lines of my humanity
instead of shoving it into a box of goodness or badness.
I love living in the now.
Today is all I know for sure.
Sometimes the uncertainty
the sheer possibilities of future terrifies me.
sometimes I forget for a moment to just be.
to just be here now.
But not today…
Today I love now.
I love here.
I love me.
I truly do…
not in ego.
not in believing that I am better than others
I simply love and recognize the value
of my own unique experience
The light within me.

I love to love
I love me
and I love you.
I love all of the beautiful yous
that run by, walk by,
skip and silly walk by.
crossing my path
or walking by my side.
Those of you that I can see in your eyes,
the very same light…
a part of the same soul I see in the mirror
The yous that are living
breathing, growing…
exploring every inch of this human experience
living life in love and laughter.
Living each day with a sense of urgency
and yet with an equal dose of serenity
refusing to waste a moment
in the dull dreariness of insecurities
and a life spent half asleep.
Because,
today is the only day you have,
is the only day we have.

Today,
I will let the softness of my body,
the gentleness of my heart,
the eyes of my soul,
love what it loves
love who I love.

Love elephant and want to go steady?

Sign up for our (curated) daily and weekly newsletters!

Editor: Travis May
Photo: Deviant Art