While on our quests, we must never forget whom we are fighting for. There are people we care for and who need us. No victory is sweet and no life fulfilling without someone to celebrate with and care for. And so let us master our role as lover.
Lovers have a stunning capacity for shining attention and adoration on others. They take a vital interest in others so that they may understand them, care for them, and contribute meaningfully to their lives. They communicate from the heart and seek to enlarge the heart of those around them by giving them respect and empathy.
This may be the most difficult role and responsibility to master. Our relationships demand more presence, more attention, and more purposeful tending than any other area of our lives, yet how often we cause our own disappointment, heartbreak and separation. Think of all the wrecked relationships that could have been saved with just a few more minutes worth of time, attention, and affection. Witness the father yell at his daughter without regard for her feelings or needs. Observe the wife at the table, staring at her phone rather than conversing with her spouse. Recall the time a loved one needed a kind word but we were too busy. All the darkness and sadness caused in these situations would be preventable if there were a higher focus on love.
In a modern world plagued by distraction, our greatest work in becoming better lovers is in reconnecting with those who have already given us their hearts. We have to finally stop all the looking about and once more peer into the eyes of those we adore. We have to ask them more questions. How was their day, really? What are they struggling with? What would make them feel more alive and happy? How can we connect with and care for them better? Is there actually a way we can demonstrate even more affection and appreciation for them?
We must learn to sit down each day and think about the health and growth of our loved ones as much as we think about the growth of our careers. Are there rituals we can create to bring us all closer? To rekindle the fire and passion? To move our lives forward, together?
Each of us was fashioned from love. Our nature is love, and our hearts beat with it and our spirit soars with its quickening power. Let us reconnect with our hearts and the hearts of others. Let us embody this role with such vitality and power that in the bright beams of our love those around us are stunned and overjoyed and honored and enlivened.
Our thanks to Brendon Burchard