Everybody has a heart. Everybody has a capacity to love.

Some of us just don't wish to be forced into acknowledging that love exists for them. Some, for many reasons, do not feel any inklings at all of that kind of stuff yet.

The experience of love is your yes or your no, it's your not now or your forever, or your not ever. You are not to be forced.

I think of love as a seedling. It responds to sun and darkness and water and breezes and the company of animals and other plants. It blooms on its own joyful timing, without thought or worry, and not by force.

I think all love and God are the same. The love we experience in our lives comes in many shapes and from many sources; the Greater love comes in smaller packages so that we can find it, we can be drawn to it, we can digest it. That love quenches our thirst; it helps us thrive in peace and happiness; it flows through us like light through water; it brings light to others.

I'm thankful for the love I've received from my parents, my kids, my cats, kin, lovers, and teachers, my friends old and new, the scrubby shrubs and birds and clouds, the music-makers and comedians, and the occasional stranger in a grocery store line.