Pursuing Love: A Hero’s Journey

It's time for stillness.

After an intense Autumn, I am grateful to welcome Winter's rest and reflection for a couple of weeks. I am ready to sit with steaming coffee and stare off at the water in the morning quiet. I want to think about nothing for awhile. And then, when I'm ready, I want to ponder what matters most, those questions that are hard to consider in the daily noise.

Maybe you are ready to reflect in the stillness too?

If so, here is a small gift: Some favorite questions to ponder about Love as we cross over into 2022.

Last Year
What was Love to me this last year?
What part did Love play in my life in 2021?
When did I offer Love?
When did I receive Love?
What was opened by this Love?
What is still closed off?
What Love can I send to that closed-off place?
What did all this mean to me?

Today
What do I Love about myself?
What is Love to me right now in 2021?
What do I Love about others in my life?
Today, I noticed Love when...
Today, I brought Love in when...
Today, Love was urgently needed...

Looking ahead
What am I sure of when it comes to Love?
What doubts do I have about Love?
What is ending for me now? What gratitude do I hold?
What is waiting in the wings to make an entrance?
What hope do I hold?
What picture of Love is painted by your answers?
What colors will you add to this picture in 2022?

This pursuit of Love is never finished. This asking and answering is lifelong. We keep seeking to understand, to feel, embody, give, and receive Love day by day.

One thing that's true as we cross into 2022, we need each other to keep pursuing Love. We need to remain resolved that Love is the right way to go, the right way to be. We need each other's best efforts at Love.

I've been reading bell hooks for awhile, and her passing hit hard when I learned of it yesterday. This quote was shared with me, after writing the first part of this blog above.

"We've always thought of our heroes as having to do with death and war. And you know, when we think of Joseph Campbell and the whole idea of the heroic journey, it's rarely a journey that's about love. It's about, you know, deeds that have to do with conquering domination. What have you?

And so part of what I wanted to say to people is that living as we do in a culture of domination, to truly choose to love is herioic, to work at love, to really let yourself, you know, understand the art of loving."

- bell hooks, author, professor, feminist, and social activist

Thanks to each one of you for choosing to do what bell hooks describes here, to work at love, including working at love in your teams, in your organizations, and in your workplaces. You are heros who are making more loving workplaces and a more loving world in 2022!