Remember when love was simple?
Remember love being innocent and genuine – born from a friendship and rooted in feelings of deep care and concern for someone else? Remember the heart meaning more than the head?
Maybe it’s true that we have become a world strongly influenced and driven by the power of the media, and, with it, defined who is lovable, as love, and finding our partner now is complicated – having less to do with who we are as people, and, more to do with the sensational images we present through our looks, physique, wealth, assets, and adventures. Influencing others in hopes of inspiring love, always asking, “Am I worthy yet?”
But, there’s an issue with making something that was meant to be simple and fun complicated. Namely, the more complex we make something, the difficult it is going to be to achieve. Puzzles come to mind.
I remember sitting at the table that day needing to pass some time. Although putting a puzzle together wasn’t the first activity that came to mind, it had been a while since I tried – it would be fun. Driven and inspired, I opened the box. Starring with amazement at the multitude of tiny pieces that laid before me, my imagination ran wild, I would be the World’s Best Puzzler. So, despite the challenge, I had a plan. Today, a thousand pieces, tomorrow, three thousand, and soon, a million.
Well, I can’t exactly recall if it was after the 47th piece, or, the 74th piece, but, hours into it and after a touch of frustration, a revelation shot through my brain, ‘What am I doing? This is crazy. I thought this was supposed to be something fun to do. I don’t even like doing puzzles that much. I should have just bought the fifty piece one.”
I think most of us would agree that the world, society, and, we as people are not getting any easier. Like a thousand different opinions from the media about the same story, life, and in particular, love, has more pieces than ever before – broken families, blended families, sexual orientation, gender identification, religious or spiritual affiliation, social movements, financial expectations, not to mention the intrinsic weaknesses that we all have as individuals such as, anxiety, depression, and habitual behaviors which are largely driven by our own insecurities and discontentment.
It’s a lot to sort through in hopes of finding the one piece we are looking for.
So, what happened? Who, or what, has made loving each other so complicated?
Fact is, for each of us, there is always a reason, perhaps some are similar, perhaps different but, in either case, today, all of them should be irrelevant.
Soon, we will start a new year, and with it, hopes and dreams. This New Year, I hope we start to make love simple again. As you prepare for the start of another year, I encourage each of you to focus more on defining, living, and loving your intrinsic value as well as the value of those closet to you. Love really can be fun and simple once we stop defining it by the image presented and focus more on the heart within. After all, the more complex we make something, the less likely we’re going to achieve it. So, if we have to make love be a puzzle, let’s choose the one with only two pieces.
Today and everyday, live your heart, and its value, one choice at a time – your health and contentment will thank you.
-Dr.D
#LiveYourValue
#LYV
#ActToImpact
