“Also, it's okay to go slow. You don't have to fall in love with your Life all at once. Think of Life as new lover. Seduce one another. Discover each other's interests. Become fascinated with one another. Learn how to support each other by understanding and fulfilling each other's needs. Linger in the honeymoon phase.”
This sounds so much like Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic. She's talking about falling in love with and carrying on an affair with one's artistic/creative pursuits.
"Stop treating your creativity like it’s a tired, old, unhappy marriage ( a grind, a drag) and start regarding it with the fresh eyes of a passionate lover. Even if you only have fifteen minutes a day in a stairwell alone with your creativity, take it. Go hide in that stairwell and make out with your art. […] Sneak off and have an affair with your most creative self.”
I recognize that I am living out a really great lifetime. But I'm not relating to it or experiencing it in that way, the joyous, celebratory, seizing way that brings the goodness front and center and makes it the centerpiece. My rain wants to focus on all of the things that "need" to be done, and it doesn't leave much room for anything else. I'm working on it, progress is slow.
An interesting and unexpected outcome from this post - I started thinking about what I might gain from a relationship with a dog. Depending on temperament they can offer a lot of joy and enthusiasm and love. Maybe the spark of a generous and responsive animal could reignite my own spark?
Thank you, Jenna, I relate to so much of this! And thank you for sharing the quote from Big Magic. That image of stealing a few minutes in the stairwell to make out is so yummy! It IS interesting that you bring up a relationship with a dog. At the beginning of 2022, both of my beloved cats died within a couple weeks of each other. I was completely shredded by the experience and made the firm decision to never again have a pet because I never wanted to set myself up for that sort of grief again. Plus, being able to travel without the worry of leaving the pets or, really, not having the responsibility of yet another soul to care for truly has been a big relief in life. BUT lately I have been really missing that furry, four-footed, love and I spend more time talking to people's dogs on my walks than to the people holding the leashes. In other words, I, too, have been wondering about how much the presence of a dog companion would go towards my quest of being in love with my life. If it feels good, please do keep me posted on whether or not you pursue a doggie relationship.
Jenna, I know that I skipped over this post, because I knew I would see myself here. I also promised myself I would come back, because the message here is so important. I was right, it is both beautiful and insightful. I feel the same that I have been keeping 'life' at bay, in case it hurts me. I realise now through your amazing wisdom, that there is so much more to discover. I make a commitment to do that for myself now as I know it is for the greater good, but most of all it's for me. Thank you so much, it really is a profound awareness that you have brought here. 😍
Jenna, this post is really beautiful! I can relate to, basically all of it. "Being in love with my life" is quite a hardship for me. Like you, there is much to love, and I actually do! I feel very prosperous in many ways. And there are parts of my life where I find myself on my knees begging for it to be over or taken from me. I loved your conversation with death. I have had similar ones, in mediation and in the dream state. It truly comes back to loving it all. Even the hard, icky, ugly stuff. There was a saying I heard years ago, and it has followed me through my life, “love will bring up anything unlike itself.” I have found this to be true. Asking me, “can I love this? What about this?” And showing me what is in the way of love so I can grow in my capacity to be with it and to love even more. And yes, I too have found it as a cycle, a spiral, an ongoing journey. I must admit, grief is a challenge. And I have experienced so much death, grief is always with me now. I am deeply coming to understand that it is my constant companion. The invitation is to fall in love with grief…
Thank you so much, Julie! I'm going to sit with those words...love will bring up anything unlike itself. That feels so potent and yet I can't entirely get myself around it. I'm really drawn to understanding it like there's something within it that will unlock something once deeply hidden. The invitation to fall in love with grief is so hard and yet so much a part of why we're here, I believe. I remember once, years ago, I prayed to ache for the beauty in migraine pain. Since it seemed to be my constant companion, I grew so tired of pushing it away and wanted to be able to love it. I believe in the path of coming to love these pains in our lives, but I haven't gotten there yet. Knowing that I share the journey with you, though, is a boon like no other. ❤️
Jjenna, I agree. Knowing that one does not do this practice/work/life/love/jouney alone is a boon! I feel the same way about you! There is a deep comfort in that. ❤️
I love your reflections on Death and Grief. I’m in a similar liminal space and consider myself an apprentice of Grief this year after being an active midwife in my mom’s passing in Dec 2023. It activated something deeply ancestral in me… and though I don’t really know where I’m going, I’m surrendering to wherever it takes and whomever I’ll turn out to be(come). I feel grief is intimately connected with our vitality - and vitality was my word for 2024. So, not exactly what I expected, but when is it ever? 😆
This is so beautiful, Lindsay! Thank you! I love that grief is connected with our vitality. That really feels right. One of the things Death told me (that I don't think I included in the post for word count purposes) is that grief is a physical proof of love. That feels, to me, like it's definitely about vitality. How we are with it and metabolize it and nourish it, all of it impacts our vitality. Such amazing insight, thank you! Also, I checked out your website and just want to thank you deeply from the bottom of my heart and soul for your work in the world. The collective needs you! ❤️❤️❤️
Yes! Vitality, or our life force energy, is in its fullest expression when we are with our wholeness - when we honor both our light and our shadow. When we have both, when we openly express our grief and joy, and when we receive and witness these in others, we have full access to the full range of our humanity. And that wholeness is what I believe charges our vitality.
Thank you so much for your kind words about my work! I’m just emerging from the chrysalis and honing and refining what my work will be, but totally surrendering to the spirit led guidance and inspiration!
Beautiful, Jenna! I love the idea of seducing and being seduced by your life like a new lover. These messages from Death are really beautiful. Thank you for bringing them through 💜✨
What an incredible journey you have had so far this year as you’ve explored you relationship to falling in love with your life. I am so inspired by your deep conversation with Death and all of the wisdom found in it, Jenna.
I have experienced much grief over the past 3 years, and it has taught me much about love and life. How it is all swirling around and moving together at the same time. Love and grief, death and rebirth, light and dark cannot exist without each other. And to embrace one is to embrace and experience the other. But, it is just this yin and yang balance that creates life - in all of its messy, confusing, and wild beauty.
Blessings to you, my friend, as you continue your journey this year - and thank you so much for inspiring me as always. 💫
Thank you so much, Liz! 🤗❤️ You're the second one to mention the yin yang in these comments. That feels like a meaningful call to me to spend some time in contemplation with the symbol. Thank you so much for that! A couple years ago, I too was going through a time of lots of grief and I noticed the messy, swirling nature of it all. And then one day I followed that swirl, like a vortex or whirlpool and it went down deep. I realized this is how grief expands us, not necessarily outwardly, but it grows us into depths (if that makes any sense). I felt roots down there that were brand new and so tender.
wow!!! What a powerful piece of writing dear Jenna. What an invitation to be PRESENT to the NOW, an invitation to see Death as an ally, an invitation to really understand the Ying and Yang symbol...
I remember when I was doing some Shamanic Training in Ireland, I was partaking in a workshop on Shamanic Death and Dying. This particular journey was to journey to JOY... I realised that I understood Death and yet it was Joy that I did not understand. It was as a result of this journey that I could draw the Ying and Yang symbol and really FEEL that I understood how to live with Joy and Death - both as allies, both as spirit guides, both as significant beings in my life. I began to understand the importance of both of them being in my life...Joy for living, for as you say Being in Love with Life.
There are times when my natural inclination is to chat with Death, yet to chat with Joy (or Love) is so powerful too...I feel that I can stand in the middle of a seesaw and feel balanced and oh, Jenna, to breathe in that balance is so extra-ordinary, so powerful, so tangible.
Thank you for sharing your channeled words with us. Thank you for trusting us all with these very potent messages and thank you for being such a wonderful guide. 🙏💖💫
This is amazing, Sam! Thank you so much for sharing this! I have a Joy guide too, he's one of my core seven. But I had not thought of Death and Joy in terms of the Yin Yang symbol. This is extraordinary insight! I'm going to sit in this and open to that balance. Thank you again for this. Really beautiful! 💖
This is so insightful: “whenever love is created it is eternal and transcends all dimensions.” If love carries over to all dimensions but hate, grief, rancor, etc do not, that would explain why various traditions believe that love eventually wins.
I’m glad to know Death is supporting your goal and giving reassurance!
I was reading this post and it made me think of the book Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden, which was an eye-opener for me. If you haven’t read it already, I can totally recommend it.
“Also, it's okay to go slow. You don't have to fall in love with your Life all at once. Think of Life as new lover. Seduce one another. Discover each other's interests. Become fascinated with one another. Learn how to support each other by understanding and fulfilling each other's needs. Linger in the honeymoon phase.”
This sounds so much like Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic. She's talking about falling in love with and carrying on an affair with one's artistic/creative pursuits.
"Stop treating your creativity like it’s a tired, old, unhappy marriage ( a grind, a drag) and start regarding it with the fresh eyes of a passionate lover. Even if you only have fifteen minutes a day in a stairwell alone with your creativity, take it. Go hide in that stairwell and make out with your art. […] Sneak off and have an affair with your most creative self.”
I recognize that I am living out a really great lifetime. But I'm not relating to it or experiencing it in that way, the joyous, celebratory, seizing way that brings the goodness front and center and makes it the centerpiece. My rain wants to focus on all of the things that "need" to be done, and it doesn't leave much room for anything else. I'm working on it, progress is slow.
An interesting and unexpected outcome from this post - I started thinking about what I might gain from a relationship with a dog. Depending on temperament they can offer a lot of joy and enthusiasm and love. Maybe the spark of a generous and responsive animal could reignite my own spark?
Thank you, Jenna, I relate to so much of this! And thank you for sharing the quote from Big Magic. That image of stealing a few minutes in the stairwell to make out is so yummy! It IS interesting that you bring up a relationship with a dog. At the beginning of 2022, both of my beloved cats died within a couple weeks of each other. I was completely shredded by the experience and made the firm decision to never again have a pet because I never wanted to set myself up for that sort of grief again. Plus, being able to travel without the worry of leaving the pets or, really, not having the responsibility of yet another soul to care for truly has been a big relief in life. BUT lately I have been really missing that furry, four-footed, love and I spend more time talking to people's dogs on my walks than to the people holding the leashes. In other words, I, too, have been wondering about how much the presence of a dog companion would go towards my quest of being in love with my life. If it feels good, please do keep me posted on whether or not you pursue a doggie relationship.
Jenna, I know that I skipped over this post, because I knew I would see myself here. I also promised myself I would come back, because the message here is so important. I was right, it is both beautiful and insightful. I feel the same that I have been keeping 'life' at bay, in case it hurts me. I realise now through your amazing wisdom, that there is so much more to discover. I make a commitment to do that for myself now as I know it is for the greater good, but most of all it's for me. Thank you so much, it really is a profound awareness that you have brought here. 😍
Oh, Louise, I'm so touched that you made this commitment too! Knowing that we're in this together is so beautiful to me! 💕🙏💕
Jenna, this post is really beautiful! I can relate to, basically all of it. "Being in love with my life" is quite a hardship for me. Like you, there is much to love, and I actually do! I feel very prosperous in many ways. And there are parts of my life where I find myself on my knees begging for it to be over or taken from me. I loved your conversation with death. I have had similar ones, in mediation and in the dream state. It truly comes back to loving it all. Even the hard, icky, ugly stuff. There was a saying I heard years ago, and it has followed me through my life, “love will bring up anything unlike itself.” I have found this to be true. Asking me, “can I love this? What about this?” And showing me what is in the way of love so I can grow in my capacity to be with it and to love even more. And yes, I too have found it as a cycle, a spiral, an ongoing journey. I must admit, grief is a challenge. And I have experienced so much death, grief is always with me now. I am deeply coming to understand that it is my constant companion. The invitation is to fall in love with grief…
Thank you so much, Julie! I'm going to sit with those words...love will bring up anything unlike itself. That feels so potent and yet I can't entirely get myself around it. I'm really drawn to understanding it like there's something within it that will unlock something once deeply hidden. The invitation to fall in love with grief is so hard and yet so much a part of why we're here, I believe. I remember once, years ago, I prayed to ache for the beauty in migraine pain. Since it seemed to be my constant companion, I grew so tired of pushing it away and wanted to be able to love it. I believe in the path of coming to love these pains in our lives, but I haven't gotten there yet. Knowing that I share the journey with you, though, is a boon like no other. ❤️
Jjenna, I agree. Knowing that one does not do this practice/work/life/love/jouney alone is a boon! I feel the same way about you! There is a deep comfort in that. ❤️
Beautiful and so needed this morning. Thank you ❤️
Thank you so much, Isabella! 🤗❤️ Blessings to you!
I love your reflections on Death and Grief. I’m in a similar liminal space and consider myself an apprentice of Grief this year after being an active midwife in my mom’s passing in Dec 2023. It activated something deeply ancestral in me… and though I don’t really know where I’m going, I’m surrendering to wherever it takes and whomever I’ll turn out to be(come). I feel grief is intimately connected with our vitality - and vitality was my word for 2024. So, not exactly what I expected, but when is it ever? 😆
This is so beautiful, Lindsay! Thank you! I love that grief is connected with our vitality. That really feels right. One of the things Death told me (that I don't think I included in the post for word count purposes) is that grief is a physical proof of love. That feels, to me, like it's definitely about vitality. How we are with it and metabolize it and nourish it, all of it impacts our vitality. Such amazing insight, thank you! Also, I checked out your website and just want to thank you deeply from the bottom of my heart and soul for your work in the world. The collective needs you! ❤️❤️❤️
Yes! Vitality, or our life force energy, is in its fullest expression when we are with our wholeness - when we honor both our light and our shadow. When we have both, when we openly express our grief and joy, and when we receive and witness these in others, we have full access to the full range of our humanity. And that wholeness is what I believe charges our vitality.
Thank you so much for your kind words about my work! I’m just emerging from the chrysalis and honing and refining what my work will be, but totally surrendering to the spirit led guidance and inspiration!
Beautiful, Jenna! I love the idea of seducing and being seduced by your life like a new lover. These messages from Death are really beautiful. Thank you for bringing them through 💜✨
Thank you, Allysha! That means a lot to me! 💖💖💖
What an incredible journey you have had so far this year as you’ve explored you relationship to falling in love with your life. I am so inspired by your deep conversation with Death and all of the wisdom found in it, Jenna.
I have experienced much grief over the past 3 years, and it has taught me much about love and life. How it is all swirling around and moving together at the same time. Love and grief, death and rebirth, light and dark cannot exist without each other. And to embrace one is to embrace and experience the other. But, it is just this yin and yang balance that creates life - in all of its messy, confusing, and wild beauty.
Blessings to you, my friend, as you continue your journey this year - and thank you so much for inspiring me as always. 💫
Thank you so much, Liz! 🤗❤️ You're the second one to mention the yin yang in these comments. That feels like a meaningful call to me to spend some time in contemplation with the symbol. Thank you so much for that! A couple years ago, I too was going through a time of lots of grief and I noticed the messy, swirling nature of it all. And then one day I followed that swirl, like a vortex or whirlpool and it went down deep. I realized this is how grief expands us, not necessarily outwardly, but it grows us into depths (if that makes any sense). I felt roots down there that were brand new and so tender.
wow!!! What a powerful piece of writing dear Jenna. What an invitation to be PRESENT to the NOW, an invitation to see Death as an ally, an invitation to really understand the Ying and Yang symbol...
I remember when I was doing some Shamanic Training in Ireland, I was partaking in a workshop on Shamanic Death and Dying. This particular journey was to journey to JOY... I realised that I understood Death and yet it was Joy that I did not understand. It was as a result of this journey that I could draw the Ying and Yang symbol and really FEEL that I understood how to live with Joy and Death - both as allies, both as spirit guides, both as significant beings in my life. I began to understand the importance of both of them being in my life...Joy for living, for as you say Being in Love with Life.
There are times when my natural inclination is to chat with Death, yet to chat with Joy (or Love) is so powerful too...I feel that I can stand in the middle of a seesaw and feel balanced and oh, Jenna, to breathe in that balance is so extra-ordinary, so powerful, so tangible.
Thank you for sharing your channeled words with us. Thank you for trusting us all with these very potent messages and thank you for being such a wonderful guide. 🙏💖💫
This is amazing, Sam! Thank you so much for sharing this! I have a Joy guide too, he's one of my core seven. But I had not thought of Death and Joy in terms of the Yin Yang symbol. This is extraordinary insight! I'm going to sit in this and open to that balance. Thank you again for this. Really beautiful! 💖
This is so insightful: “whenever love is created it is eternal and transcends all dimensions.” If love carries over to all dimensions but hate, grief, rancor, etc do not, that would explain why various traditions believe that love eventually wins.
I’m glad to know Death is supporting your goal and giving reassurance!
Thank you, Tara! I love the idea that love eventually wins. ❤️
It’s kind of a nail-biter in the meantime. 😬
Fabulous and uplifting… thank you for sharing this wisdom 😊🙏
Thank you so much, Simone! ❤️
Thank you for this! Very inspiring as I am in need of this very thing!!
Thank YOU, Karen! I'm so glad you found this inspiring and that we're on this journey together. ❤️
I was reading this post and it made me think of the book Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden, which was an eye-opener for me. If you haven’t read it already, I can totally recommend it.
Ooooh, thank you, Amanda! I don't know this book...going to get me a copy right now. 🤗
Gorgeous. I am not in the place. Nowhere close. I love your deep dive into this. Perhaps there is hope for me yet.
Thank you, Erica! It's definitely a process for me, but I'm committed now. I'm going to love this life if it's the last thing I do. Lol.