The Year of Love - 2009

This year I will be living with love in my life as though never before; loving myself, loving my wonderful fiance D and loving other people in my life; loving my home, my surroundings and my everyday activities. I look to experience love in it's many forms to it's deepest level and to experience life from a state of love, rather than the state of fear I have often found myself coming from, in the past.

Love is a very magical thing. As a child, I experienced the love of my parents; the strong protective love of my Mother and the adoring gentle love of my Father. As a new teenager, the parental love was that of discipline versus rebellion and how far could I push the boundaries. As a teenager I began to explore love of the opposite sex and I thought that was the most amazing thing I could possibly experience. Moving into my twenties and my first "real" relationships, I experienced love as safe, binding, fun, joyous and hopeful followed by my fair share of heartbreak, desperation, disappointment, regret, powerlessness and unfullfillment. In my 27th year, I met my husband-to-be and knew almost instantly that I would be with him for the rest of my life. Following some ups and downs in the getting-to-know-you phase (coupled with some 450km separating us to begin with) we found our place with each other and then I was able to experience love of a different kind.

The love I share with D is whole, complete, all-encompassing and yet it allows me to feel completely independent, whole within myself and equal. I believe that this love is what I thought I'd been searching for all of my life, the stuff of fairy tales.... but wait... this love is so much bigger, stronger, more fulfilling and satisfying than any I could have imagined. This love makes me more of who I am at the same time as allowing D to be more of who he is. This love reminds me that life is worth living to it's fullest potential.