It’s the end of the day, and the household is still and quiet. The click of the keys, the distant hums, and hushed background noises are hardly interrupted by the trickle of the aquarium filter. Even in the stillness, I am reminded that some aquatic gardening is a tad overdue. It’s a long weekend, and there will be time to take care of it before the new work week begins. I feel…content.
Contentment has become just about my favorite emotion. Oh, sure, there’s Love…love…passion…romance, and yes those are all high on my list of favorite emotions. Happiness, too, sure. Joy. Delight. Those are all excellent emotions to savor in any moment. Memories of those emotions are wonderful to recall, and re-imagine in great detail. Contentment, though, has this saturating, drenching, wholly fulfilling sense of completeness and comfort that just can’t be beat. Contentment doesn’t ask for more. Contentment doesn’t feel short-changed, disadvantaged, or cheated. Contentment doesn’t know resentment, jealousy, or envy. The best part? Contentment is easy.
Here it is, night. The house is quiet, possibly sleeping, but no matter; I am content in the stillness of this lovely moment, after a delightful day of love…contented love, good-natured love, committed love, soulful love… and it’s not anything to do with Valentine’s Day. Love isn’t a holiday on a calendar to be celebrated as a token moment…It’s more of a lifestyle.
Love was once challenging for me to recognize, to find, or to hold on to…I needed to make quite a few love-related lifestyle changes, some of them even the same basic fundamentals of good health and self-care as diet and exercise; how do we love well, if we don’t begin with ourselves? At least, it has seemed to work out that way for me…your results may vary. I still work at love. I expect that even a committed lifetime of the study of love and loving doesn’t halt the need to practice good practices: kindness, compassion, listening with awareness, laughing together, being present, being considerate, sharing experiences, tenderness…all of it matters. Every compliment, every criticism, every moment to connect or to disconnect is relevant to the state of love. How we treat ourselves, how we treat each other, are what love is built on.
If practice makes perfect…what are you perfecting?
Love was good to me today. It’s definitely enough, and I am content.
One quiet moment, thinking about love.
Evening Light 