This is What Love Feels Like

Laying down
for a nap
with my daughter

curled up with
my belly
to her back
my arms
around her
little almost
three year old
body

little feet
resting on
my thighs

rhythmic
breathing
deeply
together

we sleep

sacred
holy
complete

this
is
what
love
feels
like.

Lisa A. McCrohan, Copyright 2013

We can lead busy, fragmented, hurried lives.  We can go at a pace that our nervous systems, bodies, minds and hearts just weren’t meant to sustain for very long.  We can “go, go, go,” attending to all the distractions that inevitably vie for our attention, never really pausing long enough to truly NOTICE what love feels like.

I don’t want to live this way.  And I don’t want our children to live this way.  I don’t want couples to live this way.

The people who come to me for coaching and counseling, who write to me after reading a blog post, who have one of the poetic wrist wraps — they, too, don’t want to live this way.

Something within each of us calls us to pause.  To pause and NOTICE what love feels like.  To let those moments of love soak deep into the fibers of our being.

I used to say, “Well, it’s not possible to live like this in every moment.”

But lately I’m beginning to ask myself, “Isn’t it?  Isn’t it possible?”

Not in some striving kind of way – but in an ’embracing’ kind of way.  Not in a way that puts more pressure on myself – but in a way that offers me an invitation.  An invitation to really LOVE in every single moment of my life.  To always be conscious of how love feels – within me, around me, and between me and another person.  And maybe, there will be moments where I dissolve and am only Love.

THAT is how I want to go about my days.  That is how I want our children to go about their day.  That is how I want all of us to go about our day.

I hear you all saying the same thing.  I read your emails, I sit with you in coaching, I stand with you waiting to pick up our kiddos at school.  I hear it within each of us – this Inner Call to know in our bones what love feels like, to experience, to soak it up…and it share it with the world.

Here’s the gentle challenge for all of us:

~   Before you get out of bed in the morning, feel the covers wrapped around you body.  Feel your comfy pjs.  Feel your warm bed.  Breathe in the love that is in your home.  And say, “This is what love feels like.”

~   As you take a shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast, slow down and taste your food.  And say, “This is what love feels like.”

~   As you are running out the door, gathering your dear ones to go off to the bus stop, pause for a moment, look in their eyes, give them a hug, and say, “Ahhhh, this is what love feels like.”

~   In your day, look up at the sky and notice its expansiveness.  Look down to the earth and imagine the earth beneath you that supports you.  Breathe in the miracle of seeing such grandeur, such aliveness, and say, “This is what love feels like.”

~   When a colleague or friend gives you a compliment and you feel truly “seen,” say to yourself, “This is what love feels like.”

There a hundred moments in a day when we can look around us, look within us, and look into the eyes of those we love and say, “There’s nothing I need.  There’s nothing outside of me I want.  THIS is sacred, holy, and complete. This is what love feels like.” 

AND…we can teach our children to NOTICE WHAT LOVE FEELS LIKE! 

~  When your two year old reaches to hug you in the morning, you can embrace him or her and say, “Ahhhh, my Love, THIS is what love feels like!”

~  Try asking your five year old, “What does love feel like to you?”  Paint it together!

~  Sit down for awhile with your tween or teen and ask them, “What does love feel like to you?”  This can get really deep.  This can be a time of talking to your child about HOW LOVE SHOULD FEEL — with friends, with a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Dear friends, let these everyday invitations soak deeply into your being.  Little moments throughout the day of noticing what love feels like.  Moments of accompanying your child in noticing what love feels like.  What a gift!

* You can find out more about Compassion Coaching.  This is where we nourish and resource you with mindfulness, compassion and meditation practices so you go about your day with ease, clarity, and calm.