As I watch the rain fall today in San Francisco, I’m musing about the nature of love after attending a miraculous wedding in Big Sur on Valentines Day.

Watching Dan & Lana stand together in a circle of rose petals, I was struck by how much love loves to show up. It was there with us in the forest- visible, audible, and just mystically present.

And of course it doesn’t just show up among the rose petals.

It shows up as an opportunity for us when we’re tired or crabby or feeling overwhelmed. Or when we think we feel “unloved” by others.

The opportunity goes both ways- love showing up for us, and us showing up for love. We can often allow love to show up for us. Showing up for love calls for us to practice. In both cases, our abilities to receive love can be expanded through practice. Practicing means things like asking, exploring, fumbling, resisting, opening, and allowing.

We can ask love to show up especially when we feel fear too. Love can and does melt fear if we let it.

Ways to feel and experience more love:

*Acknowledge and feel your feelings when you’re actually feeling them.

*Do this by saying out loud the name of your feeling or feelings; “_____, ______, I see you, I hear you, I acknowledge you.” This allows your feelings to soften and change shape, and not get stuck inside your head and body.

*Ask for love to show up for you in whatever way it chooses- not the way or ways most known to you. Then be willing to see the love when it appears and let it expand.

*Give yourself the gift of showing up for love even when you don’t know exactly how- follow love’s lead.

*Help others know how to love you even more- by giving descriptions of what feels loving to you. Then, let go of your attachment to them doing it that way, and allow them to give to you in their language, in their way.

Open all your faucets and let love IN.

That’s what I’m doing now as I’m writing this. It felt more like a trickle as I began writing;-) Writing is such a healer & transformer.

Let me know the tiny or large ways that love is showing up for you, or how you’re showing up for love- I’ll love to read them!

I’m showing up for love by:

*Being available to love and be loved, and not hiding or isolating

*Practicing receiving love in new ways that sometimes feel uncomfortable

*Asking for specific kinds of loving support that feel good for my unique self

I’m allowing love to show up for me by:

*Listening to the “language of love” from others, even if it’s not my style

*Trusting that love is always there in all ways, even without “evidence.”

*Telling loving stories about myself and others