I don’t care where we go as long as you’re riding shotgun
The best part of the road trip isn’t the destination, it’s the wild shit that happens along the way.
The ribbon of asphalt curved between the mountains and Howe Sound, framed by vibrant light and shadow of the late afternoon sun. A satisfying growl came from my car, as I pressed my foot deeper into the gas and locked into my favourite corner. In this moment of total presence, I felt very happy.
The pleasure found when driving down an open road comes from our ability to be in the now. Within this surrender to fully feel the moment, you free up energy to intimately experience what’s around you and feel joy. I think love is this way… it has nothing to do with the future, commitments, romance, check-boxes, rings and promises. It just simply is—an energy that’s always available at the core of everything—if we choose to tap into it.
Drifting into love
Love is trusting the loss of control, and letting go. It’s loosening your grip on the outcome and mindfully allowing things to slow down and come into brilliant focus. This slowing down creates time and space for Loving kindness (the capacity to care); Compassion (the ability to feel another’s pain); Sympathetic Joy (the ability to feel their happiness), and Equanimity (perseverance of heart).
Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations
Straight roads don’t make for skillful drivers. You have to travel into the unknown, take chances, and really feel the road…
Vulnerability helps us cross the line into love. It’s not always comfortable to be vulnerable, but when you feel safe with a particular person, there’s an opportunity for sweet surrender into love; a desire to understand the other person, the moment, and everything in it; their ambitions, desires and troubles, and in turn, you can fully experience their beauty and love them.
To love is to see yourself in the other. Each person’s struggle, each person’s story is so beautiful and when you stop for just a moment and appreciate that, it’s so precious.
Wherever you go, go with all your heart
When the Buddha talks about love, he talks about a quality of a heart that makes no distinction among any living being. When you live everyday with loving intention and motivation, you can surrender to the flow of time—wherever it takes you.
“Hatred does not cease through hatred. Hatred ceases through love.”
By finding grace in every single moment, and freeing yourself from the limiting beliefs that one road is better than any other…all roads lead to love. Bring love into all aspects of your life—not just romantic relationships—to all people you encounter along the way. This entails practicing loving kindness while you interact with others, speak to others, and in the midst of conflict with others. It’s understanding that the “jerk” who just cut you off might just be having a really bad day.
In this way of being, we experience more peace and contentment, and it allows us to find grace and composure even in the moments of great distress, because we realize there’s something that can never be lost—and that’s love.
Take chances, make wrong turns
The road may at times feel unfamiliar and not what you planned; sometimes it’s dark and lonely, other times your wheels are pulling you off course, and some moments you will stare wistfully at your map feeling as if there’s nothing left in the tank…but those twists, turns and struggles might be giving you the experience you need, and setting up the ideal timing, for you to get exactly where you want to be.
Sometimes you have to go down a few wrong roads to find the right one. And sometimes you’re convinced you are on the wrong road…and suddenly you discover a beauty you never imagined.
Navigating the road to love
The quality of your life will depend greatly on how you ride on and relate with the road. Simply changing the place with which you exist will change very little, you need to work on the inner construct of your feelings, perceptions and pace. The main purpose in life is to actually experience the experience you are having…
Kindness and compassion
It begins with developing a loving kindness towards yourself. To love unconditionally means there must be a desire for another’s happiness, but first you need to first look after yourself.
Mindfulness & meditation
Take time to go into yourself. When you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside of you, you will know how to take care of the things that happen around you.
Freedom
Freedom is the guide. When in a relationship, each person should feel free to be an individual and grow and develop in their own way. There should also be freedom to share ideas and thoughts without fear of judgment.
Joy
There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.
Emotional wealth
When lives are lived around love rather than accumulation, we can experience a great deal of abundance. Fulfillment lives in the heart-brain…and like a heart that beats, it is constantly giving then surrendering.
Be in the moment
Consider your greatest adventure—great music, sharing stories, laughing, smiling about old memories while creating new ones. We appreciate the in-between places and the small things.
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