Live and Love 

There is something that I began to sit with recently. 

It came when I saw that daylight was still here as I left work. 

The longer days had also come as I found myself listening to music that had a steady strumming beat. 

Then a drum line came as a melody began with a repeating line. 

‘The more you live, the more you love’ is the song that has all of this. It seemed like the band a Flock of Seagulls was ready to take flight with more than the words they presented. 

The more you love the more you live. It has been a rhythm in my realm for years. 

Loving and living are together like peanut butter and jelly, sunshine and a seashore, flowers and bees by the dozen. 

Then the question which came floated in my mind like a teaser before the main event. 

Do you have love before your life truly comes into shape or does your life tell you how to love? 

When these two things merged into a steady stream, I found that I was being taken into a time when I knew what I was doing. 

It seemed like a bowl full of gumballs. One that is seen at the entrance of a store. 

I remember seeing these machines that hold random colors of jaw popping flavor over the years. 

In fact, these were what brought joy to our son as he would step through the doors after going shopping. 

He would search my pockets and bags for a quarter to set into the slot and wait to see what color ball would come out. 

As we would listen for the ball to drop into his hands, he would try to be patient about that thing he loved to see. 

Then, it would clink next to the small metal door, and he would slowly open it to have the gumball come to rest into his hand. 

Success again! 

Off we would go to add it to his collection in the car with a smile and light step. 

The more we lived the more he loved.

The more we lived the more he loved to go for more of what came next. 

It was then that I realized that going for the little things is how to live for me. 

Love is what I now know can show what to do in any realm in each of those things. 

Perhaps it doesn’t matter which came first as long as they continue to come together for goodness’ sake. 

For goodness and joyful sake, I decided to now continue to sit with them as the days grow longer. 

There are little things that have come to me since I first walked out of a store with a smiling boy beside me. 

They have to do with the colors in this glass bowl full of gumballs and remembering that the things beside me are more than what is first seen there. 

I have sat in a room and looked up at pictures made by others who I hold dear.

One created by chisels, another by paint and tilting a canvas. 

The third set of art I see each day was created by crayons, markers and pencils.

Each of these have settled into my soul.

The colors have brought me awareness about each person who created them, the time they waited before letting each piece become something more. 

How they knew it was time to walk away with a smile. 

This is what I found when sitting and waiting. 

Watching and remembering. 

Listening and being silent. 

It was indeed time to live and love as I found new rhythms, smiles and joy with a gumball. 

Do you know that I still grin when I see a machine that lets me look in my bag for one more quarter? 

Perhaps the adventure of what is coming next will be my eternal quest thanks to a smiling boy. 

Join me on this steady beat. There is always space for more! 

More to read about the things beside us: What’s All This