"Love IS All Around"

Remember the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show?

Well, “Love IS all around,” when you least expect it, or think it isn’t, even in the midst of the most challenging of situations - in what may sometimes be viewed as a broken world.

But fear not – because Love can fix things - a lot of things.

Years ago, when I was in high-school, like many of us, I dealt with the daily struggles of being a teen; the various peer-pressures, making the grades, etc.

I was a popular kid, but bullied by the less popular.  I was cute and talented; I could sing and dance and act, while my most of my classmates played sports.  I was always athletic but, for whatever reasons, lacked confidence in that field.  I had the ability to play soccer; I was an excellent swimmer, I enjoyed tennis, and at one point, I could have easily trained as a boxer (my high-school was one of the few that presented boxing as a competitive sport).  But I never pursued any of it.

So, from the get-go, my adolescence was a tough road.

Fortunately, on the home front, there was also a lot of Love to help buffer it all.  I’d leave school and  be greeted at home by my beautiful Mom and Dad, or my Aunt Mary who lived with us; my Aunt Elva and Uncle, who lived next door – or at the homes of the many members of my extended family.  In each case, Love was waiting for me at all times, in a circumference of a 2-mile radius of my house.

Today, it’s a different path.  The elder members of my family are gone, and my cousins are spread around the country.  So, Love is not that easily observable, except for from a few close friends. 

I had dedicated my prime years to caring for my parents, and establishing my career.  It took me a little longer than most to attain financial security, mostly due to my creative pursuits.  I've met and dated many wonderful women over the years, and it's just never been the right time. But I’m now ready to take my life to the next level; to find romantic love, and start a family…even at this stage in the game (I‘m 52; my Dad was 50 when I was born). 

I knew that in caring for my parents, Love, in any of its forms, from Heaven or on Earth, would not abandon me.  And it hasn’t.

A very good friend recently helped me to understand it all:

When I was young, as when we are all young, we are given a model of Love.  It takes the form of our parents or close relatives, or any of those who are closest to us in our formative years.

And when we become the adults…we become the models of Love that others look up to and emulate.  We are not only embraced by Love, but we become fullly aware that we have always been Love itself.

“Love IS" not only "all around,” but it's inside us - and it always has been – and it always will be.

Each time we feel it, share it and give it away.