Love comes in countless forms. We may think we have covered the nature of love and then suddenly find new ways to bring unimagined vitality to the role of love in our lives. Barbara Fredrickson brings a science lens to understanding love in her book Love 2.0 and asks us to appreciate, and in that way gain resilience from, the fleeting psychobiology of love right now while we can. Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano (Leonard Price) argues that in order to find meaning and equanimity in our lives we need ways of loving better with less expectation and more generosity. And cultures around the world have a stunning array of ways of talking about love that can teach us to be more creative with our love. In Yagan the word mamihlapinatapei means a wordless, yet meaningful look between two people who both desire to initiate something, but both are too scared to initiate themselves. In Dutch the word queesting is defined as inviting someone into your bed for some pillow talk. In French the phrase l’esprit de escalier is the inescapable feeling you get when you leave a conversation and then think about all the things you should have said. What role is love playing in your life in this moment?
[image description: A heart steps forward holding up an object labeled, "love," and says, "I found this out back." Another heart holds one elbow in its hand and the other hand up to its chin in a contemplative expression and responds, "We can reuse that."]
RSS Feed
