In the wake of Valentine’s Day, I’ve been thinking about people who are looking for love, and I don’t just mean people who are hoping to find a romantic partner.

I think ‘looking for love’ is a beautiful way to describe anyone who is feeling lonely, or who is hurting, or insecure, or jealous, or despairing, or hopeless. Real, genuine love is the antidote to so many things that weigh us down or pierce our hearts. And again, I don’t just mean love in the traditional, romantic way — many people are in happy relationships and are still looking for love in another sense. I mean love in general: love for our friends, for our family, for our career, our home, our hobbies, passions, communities, and most importantly, love for ourselves.

I wrote a short passage about love for anyone who needs a reminder that love is everywhere, and it can look like anything — everything. If we take a moment to listen or look for it, love is literally all around us, and it takes on different faces and shapes and interpretations depending on the moment.

Sometimes it is obvious and shiny; sometimes it is tired and anxious. Sometimes it seeks us out and saves our life; sometimes it makes us question everything and challenges what we thought we knew about ourselves. All expressions of love are beautiful, and all of them have the capability to heal something in us.

When I am feeling low, or looking for a little healing, my favorite place to find love is in the mirror. Thinking about all of the things my body does for me every day, thinking about all of the things my eyes have seen, the things my ears have heard, the things my hands have carried – it fills me with a sense of gratitude: for my body, for my mind, and for little me — who fought demons no one knew about to get me here.

The next time you are feeling low, or hopeless, or insecure, or lonely – look for love. Look for it everywhere. Look hard. Name it when you see it – especially when you see it in the mirror.

Love is not going anywhere, because it is everywhere, and it will never abandon you, so long as you never abandon yourself.

With trembling hands and a steady heart,

M

—

Love is before me, beside me, and all around me. I can see it in the tired eyes of a mother putting her baby into a car seat. Love is in the interlocking fingers of a young couple, holding hands as they leave a restaurant, despite the fight they had on the drive there. It is in the arms of a father who scoops up his child, wincing from the pain he feels in his back. It is in the worry etched on a woman’s brow line as she texts her friend to check in during a difficult time. It is in the waves of laughter that carry from a table on the other side of a coffee shop. Love is everywhere and everything – tired, strained, worried, aching, and also joyous, bouncy, glowing, free.

Because it is everywhere, love is also within me. It is buried deep in the laugh lines that form around my eyes, deepening every time I feel joy or light up with glee. Love is stored in the softness of my body, the body that has carried me, protected me, seen me through every breath I’ve ever taken. It is in the tension in my shoulders, reminding me of the things I worry about — the things that worry me because they matter to me. It is in the rough skin on my hands, proud of all the things they’ve been juggling for so long. It is in the colored circles in my eyes — eyes that have borne the sight of every horror I’ve ever witnessed, willing themselves to stay open so that I may also fully see every beautiful moment I am lucky enough to find.

Because it is everything, the love within me can be messy, tired, tender, trembling, and also present, open, hopeful, sparkling, and immovable.

Ready. Optimistic. Permanent. Love will never abandon me, because I will never abandon me.

❤️