Only One Day to Focus on Love – Really?

I appreciate Valentine's Day, I really do.  A whole day with love and romance as its focus – a lovely idea.  But what if we had that same focus every day – always remembering the power of love in our lives, the power of love to change things for the better, the remarkable ways people can transform when they love and are loved?  How would that consistent focus change us, our communities, and the planet?  

It's absolutely possible to do what we need to do each day while remembering and being present to the love in our lives.  And when we remember to love and to allow ourselves to be loved, the things we do each day get done much better.

Cooking is a great example.  It's easy, especially in the course of busy days filled with responsibilities and expectations, to lose sight of some of the most important, most powerful and often small pockets of joy in our lives.  Like the amazing number of ways that cooking and baking offer joy, amazement, and even passion, ways we can become numb to over time. But when we are numb, we lose the possibility of awe and delight, and life without awe and delight quickly begins to feel empty.

Cooking, when done in a present and mindful way, is a feast for the senses.  Just like when we experience love, cooking can open us to an extraordinary range of experiences; but to have those experiences we must be present and aware.  Here's what I mean – every time we cook or bake we are offered an almost unlimited number of sensual (meaning “of the senses”) experiences, but we are often too distracted to notice and participate in these experiences.

For example, what have you been missing when you cook?  The visual stimulation, the colors, shapes, and mingling of ingredients; the sound of oil beginning to sizzle as ingredients start to soften and to come together to create something larger than any of them individually; how it feels to slice or chop, to release the aromas that tease your senses as you prepare ingredients to mingle and merge with each other. The changing aromas as ingredients move from raw to softened to ready. And the tastes, oh, the tastes! This party for the senses can be excellent preparation for other experiences that are, also, gifts for your senses if you choose to put all distractions aside briefly and to focus on what each of your senses is inviting you to learn and to enjoy.

This Valentine's Day, as you wrap a gift for a loved one or cook and bake to give pleasure to someone you love, remember the power of being present and delighting in each step in the process.  Open yourself and your senses to joy, and watch as that joy begins to change everything.