Direct Correlations

There are all of these time-killing online quizzes going around:  "Which level of Dante's inferno are you going to?"  "Which fairy tale princess are you?"  Today, after completing the "Which Disney villain are you?" quiz (it's Friday; a momentary diversion was a good thing), we were tangentially talking about the movie Frozen, and my co-workers couldn't believe I hadn't liked it.  Deadpan, I explained that it was really disturbing to realize that you had been less insightful in real life than a princess in a Disney film.  [If you haven't seen the film, do not worry, this allusion is best encapsulated by the moment in the film when the plucky princess needs someone who loves her to save her, and the  prince, whom she thought she was going to marry, said, "Well, it's too bad there's no one who loves you here."  The audience gasped as he tried to kill her, even though we all saw it coming].  We laughed pretty hard over this one, and, in truth, the movie was lovely, and I've never had anyone actually try to kill me.  Disney villains aside, the moral of the movie was that true love, given freely, is what frees us, and what makes the world pretty damn beautiful (or, in the case of the movie, un-frozen).  And this is what makes any story line move from "tragedy" to "comedy."  And it's what makes me grateful for my own storyline.

I wrote out a series of Valentine's notes to people I love last night. By the time I was finished, I was absolutely floored by how much gratitude and love I have for so many, and how truly amazing that feeling is.  Tonight I reveled in the routine of a Friday night yoga class with a friend, and the pure joy in the connection.  I reveled in the reminder by the yoga instructor that we practice in community, and there are no levels or borders in this community.

And, I am reminded, as I revel in all of this, of Brian Andreas' story "Love Match," which reads:  "I want to be loved for who I am, she said, because being loved for who I'm not just stresses me out."  Ahhh...  yes.  Direct correlation between being loved for who we are (including by ourselves) and our ability to lean into life and love and joy.   I'm enjoying these findings.