Love

Happy Love Day! Today I’m reflecting on what it means to love ourselves, our friends and our families.

“Michelangelo is often quoted as having said that inside every block of stone or marble dwells a beautiful statue; one need only remove the excess material to reveal the work of art within. If we were to apply this visionary concept to education, it would be pointless to compare one child to another. Instead, all the energy would be focused on chipping away at the stone, getting rid of whatever is in the way of each child’s developing skills, mastery, and self-expression.” 
― Rosamund Stone Zander, The Art of Possibility

The Art of Possibility shifted my mindset on so many things. It’s still my favourite non-fiction book. This concept from it of how we can love is what I carry around every day.

As humans, we have biases of how we think the world should be. This is especially true in our relationships.

What I love about this philosophy is it acknowledges that people already have a core when we meet them. Our role in loving one another is to help others remove that excess material to allow their inner sculpture to shine through. It’s not to try and shape the sculpture into what we envision. We need to accept the sculpture that already exists and work to reveal its beauty.

This is true of how we should approach self-love as well.

Whether its society’s expectations or our own blindspot, we can often put pressure on our sculpture to be what we think it should be rather than what it is. When we realize that we are enough and celebrate the art within we give ourselves permission to be ourselves and unconsciously inspire others to lean into their true inner sculpture as well.

On love day, remember to check in to make sure you’re loving that authentic inner sculpture in yourself and your loved ones. Taking time to celebrate the smooth surfaces, cracks and unrevealed portions of the beauty that’s inside each of us. Today I’m filled with gratitude for those people in my life who love mine, especially my sweet husband and our awesome daughter.