There is a composer by the name of Ludovico Einaudi. If you have not had the pleasure of listening to him, I would urge you to.

His music played at my father’s funeral, it plays in the background when I’m tired or overwhelmed…it is both spectacular and understated. I think love, real love, is a little like that. The world portrays love in a flat, plastic sense, rather than looking at the love like a globe, we see it presented as our ancestors believed, a plain with edges.

Love is so much more than romantic attachment and there lies our disappointment with it.

As solo men and women we wander wanting, hoping perhaps for this romance and as it escapes us we become jaded, cynical or disappointed. But it is like looking at the globe and concentrating on a single country, or listening to a few notes of a song…love is so much larger than we realise. And there are so many opportunities to love another person, even if it is not romantic.

If we decided to love better, would the world not be better for it?

I love the story of the giant with the beautiful garden who in his selfishness would not share it. The great joy he encountered in sharing what had been given to him is both challenge and opportunity. In this time, we are free to be the best friends, the best encouragers, the best colleagues.

Perhaps it means we risk our hearts, become vulnerable, yet if we navigate learning to love well, I believe we will receive such riches we never imagined.

by @alicecathryndyson