And if we can... just love

I saw three hearts on my way into work this morning. Not real hearts, of course, leaves that had fallen on the ground and were in the shape of hearts.

Years ago, I might have looked at them and thought they were a sign. Something romantic. Something meant for me. Today, they made me think about love in a much bigger way.

Maybe that is one of the things that happens when we have been here awhile. We begin to slow down. We notice things we might once have walked right past. We take a little more time to look at the view, not just the beautiful parts, but the whole thing.

We notice how people move through their days. How much everyone is carrying. How often people keep going even when life has asked more of them than they ever expected to give.

Recently, scrolling through Facebook, I heard about a friend whose home flooded and who, along with her son, suddenly had to find somewhere else to live. Another friend lost her dog unexpectedly. Someone said goodbye to her sister for the very last time. Someone lost a job. Someone broke her leg just before the 100-mile bike ride she had spent a year preparing for. And people, some friends, some strangers, gathered around each of them and offered love and support.

And there it is… life giving, and life taking away. Sometimes all in the same breath.

But there too, is also love.

For most of it, we don't get to control very much.

We watch. We wait. We adjust. We grieve. We celebrate. We try to understand.

And eventually, somehow, we find a way to accept what is.

The longer I am here, the more I understand that every person I encounter is doing some version of the same thing. We are all human beings, alive at the same time, sharing this strange, beautiful, and often heartbreaking world.

We don't all believe the same things. We don't love the same way. We don't pray the same way. We don't vote the same way. We don't see the world through the same eyes.

We don’t live, love, die, or grieve the same way.

And maybe that isn't something we are supposed to fix. Maybe our differences are part of what makes us shine. And yet, somehow, we have become so good at letting those differences bring out the worst in us, dimming the light.

We forget that underneath all of it, we are still just human beings. People trying to make sense of our lives. People carrying things no one else can see. People who will, at some point, lose someone they love. People who will be frightened, disappointed, joyful, angry, heartbroken, grateful, and surprised.

People who will need someone to be kind to them.

And people who will have countless opportunities to be kind to someone else.

So maybe those three little leaves on the pavement weren't a sign after all. Maybe they were simply an invitation to stop. To look. To notice. To remember.

I stood there for only a few minutes this morning, looking at hearts made from leaves. But they became long, reflective minutes. And what I am sitting with now is love. Not the kind of love that belongs only to romance, something much bigger...

Love for this life.

Love for the people who have been placed in my life.

Love for the work I am fortunate enough to do.

Love for the tiny, unexpected things that still have the power to stop me in my tracks.

And love for every human being trying to navigate this life in the best way they know how.

It makes me want to be kinder. More patient. More understanding.

It makes me want to step aside and make room. To listen a little longer. To judge a little less.

To stop assuming I know what someone else is carrying. To remember that everyone I meet is living a life I often know very little about.

Maybe this is what getting older has given me. Not certainty. Just a greater willingness to pause. To take in the view. To notice the hearts. To recognize that beneath all of our differences, we are here.

All of us. Here. Together. For this little while.

And perhaps that is enough of a reason to be gentler with one another. Perhaps we don't have to agree. We don't have to understand everything. Maybe we don't even have to have the right words. Maybe sometimes we can simply make a little more room for one another.

And if we can… just love.

Just love...

Just love.

xo

Gabby