Love, Sunshine, Water, and Gratitude

You're cold and the sky is filled with puffy clouds, dark in the middle with silver linings glowing on the edges. Suddenly brilliant light makes your eyes tear up and bathes your face and body in warmth as the Sun comes out. I remember feeling that healing warmth the first time I went to a Mediterranean beach in Nice, France. The gentle lapping of the waves and whole body warmth from the Sun reminds me that all life in the world comes from two simple energies: Sunshine and Water.

Love is a chemical reaction in our brains and bodies created and supported by our neurons. As warm-blooded mammals, we need heat to allow our body temperatures to support those cells. Without warmth, the enzymes that make neurotransmitters like dopamine (pleasure) and oxytocin (love) would not work. We'd be literally—and figuratively—cold-blooded.

Water makes up most of our body volume, allows our blood to flow from our hearts to our brains, and carries electrical signals that inform us we're feeling healing warmth. It keeps our body temperature constant, holding onto heat or producing cooling sweat as needed.

If you think of the Universe as a Godly entity/force, like I do, it makes perfect sense that the Sun's energy and Water's life-sustaining gifts support humans' ability and tendency to love. I'm surrounded by those gifts at this moment. My Sweetie and I are in California, having left icy Maryland for a vacation with some loved ones. The Sun is shining, the humidity is low, there's a breeze (powered by the Sun), and I'm being pampered with home-cooked meals and warm yet breathable blankets. At this moment, I feel perfect peace. Thank you, Universe-God-Sun-Water. I promise to pay Your love forward.

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