Revolutionary Love Stories
I talk about Revolutionary Love a lot. When I say Revolutionary Love, it comes from unfoldings that have happened in my own life. Where the concept of love and actually being able to feel it in my being seemed like a spark of hope that lived somewhere in the future. Love in all of its forms seemed like it happened to others but not to me. Feeling a steady flow of love and connection to something that felt loving in a consistent and tangible way seemed pretty far away.
I dreamed of feeling it like I saw it in the movies. I longed to feel lit up all the time and have my life fueled by unstoppable, unwavering, unconditional love that fed me unending energy and satisfaction. I believed that would bring people who saw me fully and appreciated me and were so proud to be in connection with me. I secretly hoped that kind of love would melt away all the suffering and life would be FULL of joy and nothing else.
These days, I can tell you that Revolutionary Love, for me, isn’t like that. It’s MORE than that. It’s being connected to a sense of solidity and support inside myself and from friends and others in my life that are so THERE and available. It is being open to the possibility of receiving goodness in any moment. It’s feeling a sense of acceptance, equanimity and a willingness to stay when things are feeling challenging - with a sense of care and curiosity and compassion. It’s choosing the most loving thing I can do when I don’t have boundless energy and not fight myself on it or tell myself it should be different. It’s feeling healthy boundaries emerge without needing to effort them - simply allowing them and trusting my own wisdom without making myself wrong for wanting or needing something to be a certain way. It’s feeling gratitude in simple moments like breathing in the fresh clean air or drinking clean water. And it’s being present for connected moments with others and allowing the goodness of the interaction to touch my heart and BE ENOUGH without needing more.
Revolutionary Love is standing by my own side and having my own back even when it causes ripples in relationships or interactions. It is taking responsibility for when I’ve been off and being willing to hold myself tenderly through any work that is needed so that I can continue to grow. It is giving myself space to be vulnerable even when it feels scary. It is slowing down to take care of all my parts (especially the inner child or inner teenagers in me that need extra care and listening sometimes).
It is Revolutionary because it is not what I was taught that love could be. It wasn’t what was modeled to me in real life or movie life. It is unique to me and my own nervous system and sensitivities. It is a kind of listening that is devoted and dedicated and courageous - a listening for what I need in any moment that might be different than what I think it should be, or what I was taught it should be. It is beating to my own drum and creating a sense of safety and love and belonging for myself that is unwavering and unstoppable.
I was describing the feeling to a friend last night. It’s like feeling like there’s a soft, warm, weighted blanket around me all the time giving me a hug and a reminder of the support and love that’s there in every moment.
My story of embodying Revolutionary Love is one of going against what I believed it to be, what I felt I NEEDED it to be and to be able to move through those old thoughts that kept me stuck and suffering and discover it in an entirely new way. AND to know… the unfolding continues. It is more than enough for now yet I am open to the possibility of love to deepen and shift and change according to any moment.
I’m so curious about YOU and YOUR LIFE and how you’re finding yourselves embodying revolutionary love in moments big and small in your life. Have you gone through my mini-series and brought those practices into your life regularly? I’m curious how you’re noticing love expand in your bodies and your lives.
Tell me about your story. And if you’re open to it… let me know if I can publish it in one of my blogs and newsletters soon so that others can be inspired by your stories. Feel free to write it or record it.
Leave a comment, or you can email me at shelby@shelby-leigh.com
Looking forward to receiving you and your story.