"NONE OF THE ABOVE MATTERS. All that matters is loving people. Spend 2017 loving people as much as you possibly can, so they feel loved and they believe in themselves and they see how beautiful they are and they see the beauty in others and then suddenly the whole world will become more beautiful for all of us. That's it. Just love people."
I frantically two-finger-typed the above paragraph into my "2017 Goals" phone memos on New Year Eve. Forget all the other music/photography/business goals that I'd been composing for days. The wisdom of the universe just landed in my lap...right outside the ladies' bathroom at Resolution 2017. My meaning of life is happiness and all goals are just stepping stones to get to happyland, and happyland is just a place where you're loving yourself, loving other people, and loving the world around you. Every goal we set and action we take is an attempt to get us to this happy place. We just get very distracted along the way and start to think the goals themselves are important. I am embarrassed to see how selfish & egocentric I've been; spending half of 2016 naval gazing, desperately trying to identify 'my calling' and what I WANT, me me me. To my credit, I was cracking out of my people-pleaser shell so it's only natural that I swing to both extremes.
But now, it's 2017 and I'm wondering...how do I love?
How do I love myself?
Through...healthy lifestyle choices? Following my passions? Challenging myself and making myself proud? Listening to my intuition? Only focusing on the positive? Delighting in simple things? Being patient and understanding with my development? Encouraging my interests? Saying no?
How do I love other people?
Through... music? conversation? gift? writing a blog? Running a business? Teaching workshops? Teaching Yoga? Do I need to volunteer at the homeless shelter? Just focus on my artwork and have faith it will help someone? Hug everybody? What does it mean to love
I feel pretty confident about about to love myself but loving other people confuses me.
Can I use my self-love as an example/template for loving others?
// Chamonix
