acts of love
Valentine’s Day is behind us, but true love is eternal. We know that. At different stages of our lives, the definition of love may mean different things to us. In our youth, it hinges on the bonds with our parents and friendships. In young adulthood, it may identify as passion, desire, lust and yearning.
As we get older, love changes again. It may include all of the above from our younger selves, but it deepens. Our definition changes, for ourselves and with a partner. That’s why love is so beautiful. It’s like energy, which knows no end. It just morphs, expands, transforms and transcends, evolving to who we are, what we need and what we no longer want or need to hold space for.
Acts of the truest love aren’t always grand gestures. Most of the time, they aren’t. (Though, those are nice too from time to time.) This has recently struck me deeply. Curve balls thrown at you often make the penny drop when you least expect it. Sometimes it’s subtle, like a drizzle and sometimes it’s like a bucket of cold water dumped over your head.
The start of my 2024 did not start off as I anticipated. Within the first couple of days of the New Year, I was enduring an unexpected hospital stay. It was scary and humbling and uncertain. I’ve always deeply appreciated how life can change in the blink of an eye, but when things happen ‘to you,’ it’s brings forth another level of awareness.
From that very hospital bed, I watched my husband ‘simply’ folding my clothes in his neat and tidy, obsessively British way. Watching his meticulous approach, he methodically took his time. He placed them in a perfectly stacked pile on the chair, every day. In that moment, that bucket of cold water hit my head. I had an immediate and nostalgic flashback to when I was in labor and gave birth to our kids. I remember him doing the exact same thing. I recalled different emotions connected with that experience, but the act of love was still the same.
Last night, I came home from a lovely date night with my girlfriends. When I came home and went upstairs to shower, there was my towel - waiting for me, neatly folded in the bathroom. My pajamas, also waiting on my bed, perfect pile intact. My heart smiled and all the feelings of love and appreciation swelled again. Especially, the gratitude and love for him, his love for me and his ‘small’ acts of love. We all deserve them and we are all capable of them. Keep your eyes open and your heart wide for these acts and those special people in your life. It’s these moments, drizzle or bucket, that will change your perspective on what true love means to you, how we embrace it and how we can create these same feelings for the ones we, ‘love.’
much love + light,
jess
xxx