On a more serious note: LOVE

I have always wanted a tattoo, in theory. I'm not the kind of person that could get a tattoo of a butterfly on my ankle just because, though. It has to have meaning for me. I have never been able to wrap my brain around having something like that on my body. Forever. There has never been anything that I connected with in a way that I could make that kind of commitment. So, I had all but given up on wanting a tattoo. Until yesterday, when the right thing came to me in a flash of brilliance.

There is this wonderful organization called "To Write Love On Her Arms". My BFF Steph told me about it quite a long time ago, but for some reason, it never sunk in what they were about, and I pushed them to the back of my mind, and hadn't thought about it again until yesterday. I saw in my Facebook feed that someone was attending "To Write Love On Her Arms Day". So, I checked out their event page, and fan page, and website, and promptly and deeply fell in love with this movement.

To Write Love On Her Arms exists to raise awareness on the issues of depression, suicide, addiction and self-injury, and to raise actual funding to get people struggling with these problems real help. It exists to promote the truth that each person is important, our lives matter, and we are loved. Seriously, check out the website (linked above) and/or their Facebook page. If you're not moved, you are made of stone. For real.

Anyway, this got me thinking about that 4 letter word, LOVE, and how big a part of my life it is. All the ways in which I desire to live, all the things that I believe in, are directly related to the giving, spreading, accepting of love. Suddenly, LOVE was all I could see.

One of my favorite songs, "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz: "Look into your heart and you'll find love, love, love..."

The opening line of my church's (Unitarian Universalist) affirmation is, "LOVE is the doctrine of our church..."

I am an unapologetic gay marriage rights advocate. A group I am a part of? "Standing On The Side Of Love".

So, it only seems appropriate that I get a tattoo of the word "love", I thought. It didn't feel like a desire anymore, but a necessity. A statement that I need to make, an outward embodiment of all I am. As I thought more and more about it, the idea fleshed itself out even more. I will get two tattoos of the word love, one on each wrist. They will be in my own handwriting. On the left arm, the word will face me, as a reminder for myself, to love myself, to live in a way that promotes and embodies love. On the right arm, the arm and hand with which I give, the word will face out to the world, because all I do and all I give is out of love.

That may have all sounded a bit...hippie...to you, because it did to me. But there it is. Will post pics when I get it done.