Monday Morning Motivator: Falling In Love

FALLING IN LOVE...

Remember that wonderful old song, "The Christmas Waltz?” I love these lyrics: "It's that time of year...When the world falls in love...Every song you hear seems to say..."Merry Christmas, May your new year's dreams come true...And this song of mine...In three quarter time...Wishes you and yours...The same thing, too."

I like thinking of the world "falling in love." It is the time of year for it. I mean, why wouldn't we? Okay, I guess there are a lot of reasons. We're too busy. We're too stressed. We're too tangled up in our endless, written in stone "to-do” list. And "falling in love” ain’t on it. Getting everything done is. Making "it" perfect is.Looking good is. Cleaning up afterwards is. No wonder so many of us say to just about everyone we run into, “Oh boy, if I can just get through the holidays..."

What a way to approach Christmas..."getting through" it. Getting it over with. Getting it done." Seems like a shame, specially when the whole idea - at least at the beginning - was actually about, well, love. Loving each other - and showing it - not so much with gifts but with gestures, with words, with small thoughtful actions. (And of course, with food...but that's a good thing, too.) The American Magazine, in 1889, described the true meaning of Christmas this way: "...to give up one's very self, to think only of others...and how to bring them their greatest happiness...”

And that's what falling in love, really falling in love is all about:"giving up one's very self." Letting go...letting go of the fear of looking foolish, letting go of the fear of showing too much of yourself, or not being good enough, or... not being loved back. But that's not in keeping with the original spirit - or the possibility - of the season. That spirit dictates that we care so much about everyone else that we don't have time to care if we look silly and we certainly don't have time to worry about loving more than we're loved. We’re too busy making everybody else happy. What a liberating thought! What an optimistic, energizing idea: to abandon the "fear of falling"....and embrace the thrill of loving..

Actually, I'm getting myself in the "falling in love" mood just writing this. I hope I run into you. I'm going to give you the hug of a lifetime. Brace yourself. And pass it on. "It's that time of year...”