The "love" project

It is a little-known fact that I grew up dreaming of being an author. The best friend and I whiled away the majority of our childhood writing and dreaming of stories (when we weren't exercising our overly active imaginations with embarrassing made up games). I even attended college with the intent of pursuing an English degree, only to be distracted by the very bright and shiny art department. Despite my turn-coat ways, writing is still my first love (evidenced here by the fact that a what was intended as a brief introductory sentence is now a full paragraph long). I haven't given up on my dream of writing a book, but I have adjusted my expectations a bit to include non-published books in the category of "book", thus allowing myself a bit more wiggle room to actual achieve my goals.

My point. Right. Wouldn't that be nice?

The "love" project has been rolling around in the back of my mind for a couple of years now, occasionally surfacing and being added to before descending back into the part of my mind that doesn't think it will amount to anything. Finishing the "love" project is on my list of goals for 2013, so I pulled it out and give it a glance while the smartest watched basketball and the puppy attempted to dislodge the bow that the groomer put on her collar.

Here are a few snippets from the section entitled "Love is: Unexpected".

"I always expected love to leap out in front of me in a dazzle of lights and applause. I also had some pretty specific ideas about what love would look like- which included a guitar and some snazzy converse sneakers. Needless to say, when love dropped in on my communications class with an 8 inch afro and a soccer shirt, I very nearly missed it."

"As children, we are exposed to a wide array of romantic ideas. Disney movies, combined with the intoxicating power of our imaginations can lead us to have some truly unique expectations about the world. I once had a neighbor who told their daughter that she could have a kitten as soon as she found a pink one, and she was fully convinced that there was a fluffy ball of fuchsia in her future. Sometimes, I think that we view love a little bit like a pink kitten- we will know it when we see it, and nothing short of spectacular will do. While we are hunting for the mystical “pink kitten love”, however, we are trotting past enormous and relevant opportunities, all because we think we know what we are looking for.

I almost missed the beginning of my love story, because I didn’t realize it was happening. I was keeping an eye out for a man who knew how to wear a plaid shirt properly, not a man who knew how to do long division in his head." 

As I work my way through the rest of the "love" project, I will probably share the more embarrassing bits and pieces with you, so stay tuned for that magic. 

Love,