Unbinding Love
Several years ago, I sat down for dinner with a therapist friend at a conference in the Midwest. We'd been corresponding for months via social media, but, because we lived thousands of miles apart, had never met in person. Within minutes, my heart told me that its counterpart across the table was very special and, for the next two hours, my friend and I "got out of their way" and just let the two of them talk to one another. It was as if they'd known each other since birth.
A few years later, I received a break-of-dawn text. My friend had suffered an unspeakably traumatic family tragedy – one that I felt completely ill-equipped to respond to. Late one night, in the midst of her overwhelming grief, I texted simply, “If it’s any comfort, know this. I love you and have since the day we met. There, I said it!" Her response caught me a bit off guard, “What kind of love are 'we' talking about? Care to expand?”
In retrospect, her question shouldn’t have surprised me. After all, I too had long since grown accustomed to fitting LOVE into not-so-neat little, “worldly-appropriate” boxes (romantic, parental, familial, friend, etc.) and to receiving and expressing it accordingly. The world insists we do that virtually from the moment we dip our little toe into the muddy waters of adulting. You’ll find my “reply” to my friend’s text in one of the most powerful pieces in my upcoming book, Retune Your Heart.
For now, I offer this . . .
Macie doesn’t love that way. She spends EVERY WAKING MOMENT loving EVERYONE whole and open-heartedly—and, I might add, apologizes to NO ONE for her indiscriminance. She also receives love with the same reckless, peddle-to-the-metal abandon. And here’s the thing. Every heart that is lucky to be showered or even sprinkled with a droplet of that love is immeasurably brighter, lighter, and more joyful because of it.
“What kind of love am I talking about?” The REAL kind. The BOUNDLESS kind that accompanied all of us into this world. The SOUL DEEP kind. The TETHERED AT THE HEART kind. The kind that was never meant to and never will fit into a box.
