Love Life Back

Like most things in life, I arrived at Life Is Good, Love Life Back as my life's motto via a circuitous route.  Like your life, there's a lot of life back story, but have no fear, I have no plans to share that here in this brief post (brief for me).  


The phrase itself had its origins in a life lesson I had learned in my late 20s.  



(Here I will admit to being a late bloomer when it comes to life lessons.  I have late-in-life diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome, and like many with that syndrome, I have a number of learning disabilities, ways in which my brain processes excel beyond the average bear, and ways in which my brain connects poorly, making it difficult for me at times to put two and two together to get whatever it is most people without Asperger's get from human interactions. Suffice it to say, my emotional intelligence is as variable as my other aptitudes.  However, unlike many with Asperger's, particularly undiagnosed, I developed life/spiritual skills that effectively eliminated self-esteem issues from my life.)  


Ahem... The eye opening lesson I learned is even the bad stuff in life is good.  My father, whom I adored, died when I was 26, just a few weeks shy of 27.  My father's death ended up being a gift of sorts because in grieving his death, I learned that he was my center.  As long as my father loved me, I could love myself.  (Now, if given the choice to have my father and go on being stupid about this particular life lesson for a while longer, I would have chosen my father, but life had other plans.)  Over time, that phrase became cumbersome as a simple reminder to myself and I shortened it to Life Is Good.  


Always a cheerleader for others' highest good, I came to see that it was my job to affirm life.  Indeed, I think it is everyone's job.  


Then, as life would have it, I met someone who had a very jaded view of the human condition, a true melancholy about the suffering most people endure.  Don't get me wrong, I shared all of the specifics of that view, but for whatever reason joy for life springs from me and helps me approach what I encounter in life with love in my heart.  


She could not understand how I could possibly think life is good, how I could love life, how I could be joyous in the face of life's suffering.  So I wrote the following poem for her, and by poem's end, you will see how I ended up with the second half of my life's motto.


Life Is Good.
Regardless of the vagaries of living, life is worth living
if only to have the opportunity
to smell the sweet lemon-vanilla scent of magnolia blossoms,
to see one paper-thin periwinkle butterfly flutter about,
to feel one cool breeze dance across your skin on a warm summer day,
to hear one chickadee call out for a mate, or
to taste the juicy nectar of one ripe peach.
Joy--the possibility of joy--is abundant even in times of sorrow
if only we use our senses.
Love Life Back.