Richard Rohr, Franciscan priest and founder of Center for Action and Contemplation, shares, “I must fall in love with somebody or something every day.” (Enneagram Reflection, found here) He tells this in regards to combating his own perfectionism. These wise words have become a guide for me. It is too easy in this harsh world to focus on the negative. To focus on the way things “ought” to be. To long for the past, to long for a different past, or to dream of an idealistic future.

Recently, I’ve found myself entertaining a plenitude of “ideal” thoughts rather than noticing the “here and now.” The ideal takes me far away from where I currently am. It fills my mind with illusions. The ideal promises me, “Life will be better when…(you simplify, you get paid, you go on this trip, etc.).” The flawless life woos me with, “if you only had this title, this experience, this connection…” It haunts me with “If you’d only made this decision way back when…”. While my heart knows the ideal is false and is NEVER what it claims, my brain easily gets seduced.

This is why, today, when Richard Rohr’s words of “falling in love” found their way to my consciousness, I remembered. I recalled how when I look to fall in love each day, I’m living in TODAY. If I find one thing to notice each day that woos me, makes me smile, brings me to the present, I’m saying “yes” to what God has for me in the moment. Rather than focusing on “what could’ve been” or “what should be”, I’m giving myself permission to accept what IS.

This morning on our regular drive to school, Luke and I enjoyed the view of colors on our way. As summer peaked it’s dawning light, different shades of green spanned around us. Emerald long leafs lined the roads with rolling fluorescent lime at their feet. The dropped needles from the area pines, often seen as a nuisance, popped their orange, fiery hue in the morning sun as they lay dormant on the ground. Baby blue enveloped the sky donning cotton white clouds, evolving as they strolled. I opened the car windows. The humid, southern air touched my skin. I could nearly taste the salt air of the ocean a mere two hours away.

 I fell in love.

Today,
May you fall in love
with one moment,
accepting what is,
releasing what isn’t,
allowing yourself
to be
wooed by
God.