River Brown

One little word for 2017.

That’s easy.  My word is love.  One of my goals in working through life design with the book by Stanford course authors, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, is to raise the meter on my initial Health/Work/Love/Play dashboard and I’m working on a design problem for more love in my life.

In addition I’m doing a daily spiritual course online, Dharma 365, to live with higher purpose, and I set my intention that 2017 will be the year that I experience a primary source of love with a man partner.

So, while last year’s OLW was “write” and that value and activity stuck with me quite a bit of the year, this year is deep inner work.

Love seems so simple.  And almost commonplace. Yet it is a profound need.  I have a loving mother whom I tend at home, and have spent the last 5 days with in the hospital.  My two grown daughters are loving and I dearly love them.  My best girl friends love me and of course, I have learned to love myself.  Some get that memo earlier in life than I did, but better late than never.

I can say there are some days that I “love” teaching, and I do love to play with my camera and art materials.  I love a great brainstorm with colleagues and I love making a difference.

It is time to have a partner to share my love with.  That is so wild to say that, because I can think of a zillion reasons why such a thing is impossible.  Or not going to happen.

2017 will be an interesting year of growth, hopefully my love meter going up and me being a more loving human with my fellow people.

I know that the secret of teaching is love.  My work with struggling students over so many years reminds me of this.  And love is love – not sappy, not manipulative.  When my love meter is turned on full tilt I am really more fun to be around.

Here’s to love.