Today I want to tell you a love story...

But first, a small but potent memory...

I remember someone long ago who, after regarding me thoughtfully for some time, said: "If you were to have had the ordinary life, you would have had it by now!"

Still, it felt like it started ordinary enough. On this day -- February 14 -- we celebrated Valentines Day in third grade with construction paper hearts sticky with glued on lace and carefully signed. We stuffed them one at a time into a decorated cereal box taped to each desk, serving as a mail box. It was exhilarating to get so much personal mail! 

Now there are no more Valentine's cards delivered to everyone. I miss that. Since then I've been asking myself the question whether there's enough love in the world and gathering evidence.

I found out there are so many different kinds of love! Here are three short stories I want to share... 

People have a lot of concepts about love and how and when it should show up. But have you ever just been overwhelmed by it unexpectedly?

I had been asked to host a meeting with around 150 top managers from a bank. We hadn't had much preparation time on this event. Even though my client and I had worked well together, I hadn't been able to meet the senior team until the night before. That's not much of a relationship to go on!

And yet, somehow when I looked at all the people coming into the room the next morning, I realised they looked somehow beautiful to me. I just fell in love with them at first sight. It was an overwhelming feeling of tenderness and inspiration.

At one point in the morning, the process got stuck. I remember simply turning to the group and saying: "We don't know what to do now. Please go have a break and we'll figure out!" Everyone looked at us, nodded and left the room.

And when they came back, we just got on with it. Later, one of the managers said to me: "We could tell you didn't know what to do, but you looked okay with it and we trusted you."

I've had that wave of tenderness at other times too, times when I felt like one cell in a much larger collective body, or as if I was meant to be there and serve in exactly that moment.

That's why I believe love is a verb. When it is flowing, it is in everything you do, everything you create and everything you are.

But here's the question -- what do they spark in you? What stories would YOU share from these prompts? I'm so curious to know!

Back in 2022, after spending 18 months alone during COVID, I realised how much I missed the world. At the same time I noticed how important it felt when people shared their small moments with me -- how connected and nourished I felt.

And so LOVE STORIES was born. If you join the LOVE STORIES team you get a prompt a day for 28 days. You get to explore your stories and people you care about get to find out how much they matter.

These are three of the prompts and three of my stories. It was FUN to write them and I hope you enjoyed them.

Find out more about LOVE STORIES here.