As I reflect back to the beginning of the year remembering my intentions/resolutions/dreams, I am surprised at what I see.

My number one intention was to grow in love. To love myself (by practicing radical self-care), so that I can share more love in general. I wanted to become love personified.

For me, radical self-care showed up as eating healthy, my daily yoga and meditation practices, setting boundaries, reading four books a month, honoring my intuition, and taking developmental classes. It was long walks on the lakefront, picnics, gardening, full moon rituals, dancing while cooking, avoiding negative energy, and saying no when I needed to.

I can see how loving me allowed me to love others, with grace. I developed so much patience – I deal with a teenager and an octogenarian on a regular basis. I need a lot of patience. Just as I recognize others might need a lot of patience to deal with me!

It shows up in the way I make breakfast for my son each morning before I drive him to school. I see it when I take my mother to her different doctor appointments and other errands. I put it in the packages of garden goodness I ship to my family in other states.

It’s in the holiday meals long before the food goes on the table. The fold of the napkins, the shine on the silver, the menu preparation, the freshness of the just picked herbs from my garden. I layer their dining experiences with love.

The love is in the details. And it’s not limited to my family and friends.

It’s the prayer I send to the angry person who cut me off in traffic, the kind words I share with the surly checkout girl at the grocery store. The grace I extend to the telemarketers who call during dinner or Queen Sugar. Oh I hang up – but not before I let them run their (first) script and thank them for calling.

It’s in the way I forgive myself when I fall short of my expectations or fail to honor my boundaries. Or forget to love.

As this year swiftly moves into the next, I’m setting my intentions on an even greater understanding and experience of giving and receiving love. Why? Because after all these years of looking for love in all the wrong places, I just discovered – it’s been right there in the details all along.

Wishing you love, light and enlightenment in 2017.

Love,
Robin ❤

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Rumi