What's Love Got To Do With It?

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

I was walking in the woods a while back, pondering what it means to be happy. I was preparing for my last workshop, “How to be Happy with Less by Thinking Like Nature,” and realized that I unintentionally took on a huge topic — How to be Happy. People have been pondering and exploring what it means to be happy for centuries! But I had to be prepared, so I did a lot of reading, had some very interesting conversations, and took a few long walks. What emerged was amazing (at least to me). 

During one of my walks, I decided it was important not to try to define what it means to be happy, but rather to describe the feeling of being happy. I was coming up with words like joyful, content, expansive, optimistic. I also considered the feelings you don’t have when you’re happy: worry, fear, loneliness, greed. Just then, as I was walking down the trail, I paused and thought, “I really love this place.” I had a sudden awareness of being aligned with Nature, with that place. 

That got me thinking about love, and how to describe the feeling of love. 

There are many types of love, yet they all have common feelings. When you are experiencing love, you have a sense of abundance, of possibilities. You feel part of something bigger than yourself while also feeling you are a better you. You have a sense of trust, in the other person and in the world. You feel you can do anything, get through anything. You are courageous, curious, optimistic. 

It was then that it struck me:  The feeling of being happy, the feeling of love, and the feeling of being aligned with Nature are all the same. Wow. Does this resonate with you? 

I started my recent venture (Wild Hazel) to help leaders shift from the Conventional Paradigm to the Natural Paradigm so that they could do more meaningful and impactful sustainability work. 
I’m now wondering if this is really about helping people re-align with Nature so that they — all of us, individually and together — can feel and share happiness and love, in and with and as part of Nature. 

No small task; however, I know there are lots and lots of you that are working in this same space.

What’s love  — and happiness — got to do with it? Everything!