self-love: USE it OR LOSE IT

I saw a post on Instagram the other day, from an account @Boii_McCoy that wrapped its arms around me like a warm hug, & brought me to a screeching halt.

The post read,

“You woke up & chose love, again. I see you.”

Ooh… this post was good enough to eat! It was so potent & rested so truly in me, that it draped around my heart like a hug in a way that made me look at my own relationship to Love differently. In a way that gave me pause to consider, “Hey now… why am I not celebrating my own choice each day to choose Love?”

As I sat in contemplation with the ask, I realized how simple the answer was. I need to celebrate this. I need to cheer for how big a decision it is for me, and for others, to choose self-Love every day because it is not easy.

Better yet, I not only NEED to celebrate it, but I also WANT to celebrate it, and for more reasons than I want to dive into here because that’s not what the noticing was about. The noticing was about the fact that I know how difficult a choice it is to decide to Love Yourself in this World, let alone the actual act of doing it, so why am I NOT treating it like it is a BIG, MOTHERFUCKING, CHOICE. BECAUSE IT IS.

In light of this mental light-bulb, I realized that choosing self-Love warrants celebration, like the kind with drums, trumpets, & a whole damn brass section that beats into the Soul of your Soul. Because, in this choice… mmm, in the choosing of self-Love… well, it’s only, like, the medicine of life that offers respect for everything in Nature & ALL its living.

I mean… love is No. Big. Deal. Right?
(insert sarcasm & levity here)

Needless to say, the words of the post, and the energy within it, inspired me to see what a monumental choice LOVE IS. It shook me and said, “Hey babe. Love is THE WHOLE DEAL.” It encouraged me to heed the sacred intensity of waking up with Love, to let its awareness permeate me, to receive what a blessing & force it is to awake each day -no matter what the day prior held- & still, actively choose it. Damn. That’s some holy truth, and nothing but the truth so help me, All of the Gods.

In the awareness, the decision was immediate. I decided, then and there, no longer will I awake & say my gratitudes with repetition, out of fear, or in obligation.

I will awakeN to my gratitude & recognize it with jubilation.

I will allow the choice of choosing self-Love for a Better Me, to also become a cheer of recognition & support for the challenge & courage it takes for Other Heart Warriors who do the same. Because, in our World, choosing to Love ourselves is the practice of a Dragon Slayer and it takes a Soldier of Love (thank you, Sade) to do it.

The power of this post caused me to wake up to the potency of choosing self-Love. It made me realize that if I don’t allow myself to appreciate its healthy power, if I don’t recognize how courageous it is to BE with it, I will never truly respect its presence in me, & the art of wielding it as a divine tool.

It was this post, & the human who exclaimed the heroism within the power of Love, that allowed me to declare -with unshakable certainty- that I will no longer awake lackadaisically, each day, in my choice of Love, nor with ho-hum regard for the choices of Others who practice it.

Rather, I will awake daily, with intention, & in my gratitude, for Love’s presence in my life. I will rise within its enormity to a mental Marching Band large enough to trumpet the sound of an approaching mass of humans who step in certainty to choose it each day!

I will BE a Soldier of Love that supports the masses who are as well.

In Loves mighty name, I will celebrate understanding that I am one of many who choose it. I will do so because to diminish its active choice -in the face of life’s challenges- would be to minimize the power in both choosing to be a disciple of Love, but also to the Power of Love itself. I will no longer let anything convince me that I am alone in desires for a World that chooses to Lead with Love.

I hope you feel empowered to sound the alarm of Love, like a Marching Band.

I hope you feel encouraged to Lead with Love in your community.

I hope you defy & disrupt standards that discourage you from actively creating gratitudes or recognition for the courageousness in choosing Love.

I hope you allow yourself to realize what a gift Love is, & you choose to use it & wield it with respect for yourself, & for the rebels who March With You.

With Blessings,