Softening The Grip

Putting Love Into Action: It’s Not Just a Theory

The word that led me into the new year was not chosen lightly—

it was selected for me.

Love.

And honestly? I picked a hard one.

Love often leads me into softness.

Into vulnerability.

Into places where insecurities surface and old protections loosen their grip.

When we are constantly thinking about direction, purpose, or connection, it’s easy to get lost in the idea of love—

and lose the direct connection to living it.

Putting love into action doesn’t always have to be hard,

but it does require something of us.

It asks for courage.

Initiation.

Balance.

Justice.

Trust.

Growth.

Change.

It asks us to let what needs to stay, stay,

and to let what needs to go, go.

Love requires a certain kind of clarity—

the kind that allows life and influence to unfold naturally around us, without force.

There are letdowns.

There are moments where I think, I should have known better.

Love often requires difficult boundaries.

Honest conversations.

Discomfort—so that safety can exist on the other side.

Love in action requires reflection.

It requires decisions that help us show up better in the areas of life where love is meant to heal, not control.

When we initiate from this agreement,

action through love opens doors we could never have imagined—or even known existed.

We begin to lead with ease,

without insisting others follow.

Love requires truth.

And sometimes sacrifice—

not of self, but of illusion.

Love is not meant to stay trapped in thought.

It is a path meant to be lived.

Love is an action word.

It is soft and yielding like water—

patient, adaptive, finding its way through rigid spaces we work so hard to protect.

But it also carries fire.

So be careful.

Because fire can warm—or it can scar.

When our vibration stays high,

love dissolves hardness in any environment.

Love requires the courage of a lion,

often walking forward with a target on its back.

To write about love can feel detached—

because love in action is not something we explain.

It’s something we embody.

Love in action is lived through the heart.

It requires us to show up as our most authentic self—

again and again.

When love is embodied this way, it echoes the wisdom of Mother Teresa:

Not all of us can do great things.

But we can do small things with great love.

So today, look around.

The dog.

The cat.

Your son.

Your daughter.

The work ahead of you.

Your favorite sweater.

Whatever you love—

don’t be afraid to show it.

Even if your voice shakes.

The world needs love to soften.

Love moves like water, finding the cracks.

It asks us to be gentle.

Patient.

Love guides us when we are full of joy—

and somehow, it spreads even to the ones who seem annoyed by it.

It adjusts excess and deficiency like a bending bow.

It finds those in need.

And if we’re honest—

we are all in need.

We all have a heart.

We all bleed.

Love sits at the center of the universe.

It should be treated as such.

Share what you can.

It doesn’t take much.

But be careful of overdoing—

because that is not true love.

That is a plea.

A negotiation for acceptance.

A quiet form of control.

Boundaries are crucial.

Give what you can, because when love returns freely,

it can feel like five hundred grand.

But don’t expect it.

The universe knows the difference.

With intention, anything is possible.

With attachment to outcome, we board a train headed toward suffering—

fear disguised as effort,

control disguised as care.

That path leads to lack.

To loss of self.

And the greatest act of love in action

is refusing to abandon yourself.

So return to the heart.

Love is a two-way street.

It’s not just in doing.

It’s not just in giving.

It’s in our willingness to receive.

It lives in reflection.

In the space where doing meets non-doing.

Love requires balance—

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Showing up as our most authentic self is not a destination.

It’s a lifelong journey.

No matter the outcome—

fear or success—

love always points us north.

Does it really matter, as long as we show up as who we are?

Love doesn’t need to be over-analyzed.

It doesn’t need to be trapped in thought.

Love asks us to show up anyway.

It’s all around us.