Be More with Less

simplicity is love

Make Love: mini-mission

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Make Love

This morning I woke up around 6:00 and Guinness jumped in the bed and gave me the best cuddle ever. He had surgery 17 days ago, and while his healing is going well, he is still recovering. Today he was more himself than ever and looked at me with “I’m back, rub my belly” eyes.

This was his birthday gift to me. I am 45 today and I’ve been thinking about time and how we always want more of it. We want extra hours in the day, days in the week, and are always on the search for better ways to get more things done.

We act as if what we want most is more time to get more done, but I don’t think that’s what we really want. We want more love. We want time for love.

We all define middle age differently, but for me it’s always been 45, smack in the middle of the beginning and the end, and everything after that is a bonus. Recently though, I’ve redefined middle age, and all ages, knowing that everything after this moment is a bonus.

It’s a bonus and a blessing and I’m not going to waste a minute of it doing things that don’t honor that.

Today’s mini-mission invites you to make love. Unlike the one kind of making love that you might be thinking about, you can do this with anyone, anytime, and tell everyone about it.

10 Ways to Make Love

  • Leave work early and surprise your lover with a romantic dinner or picnic lunch.
  • Pull your kids out of school or camp and take them away for an overnight camping trip or day at the amusement park.
  • Take your dog to the park with treats and water and a big blanket.
  • Call your best friend or schedule a skype date.
  • Buy someone lunch who can’t buy it for themselves.
  • Drop by a local retirement home and visit someone who doesn’t get visitors.
  • Hold hands.
  • Send a care package.
  • Smile and say hello.
  • Say thank you.

If you do this, you’ll feel the quality of love that beats any extra quantity of time.

When you miss your kids while you are at work, you don’t want time, you want love. When you wish you lived closer to your family, you don’t want time, you want love. When you see someone struggling and you want to ease their pain, you don’t want time, you want love. Make it.

I’m keeping this short today because my husband took the day off to celebrate my birthday so I need to go make love with him. This post is short. This life is short. Go make love.

For more experiments to simplify your life, read Mini-missions for Simplicity. It’s available on the Amazon Kindle store, but you don’t need a Kindle to read it. Kindle books can also be read using the Free Kindle Reader App for your Web Browser, PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android.

 

 

Comments

  1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY! And a big thank you to you for the many gifts you have given to others. I, for one, am hugely grateful! Your book on blogging changed my life and removed some inertia and replaced it with creativity and, yes, LOVE. Have a wonderful day! 🙂

  2. A great sentiment. I’m glad Guiness is recovering from his op. Many happy returns! 🙂

  3. Happy Birthday! I wanted to take a minute to send you a little love and thank you for this beautiful post today. You are so right on with this one. All this time I’ve been thinking “if only I had more time” or “if I could just get caught up, I’d have time to…” And what I really needed was to make love. This changes everything.

    I hope your birthday is wonderful and full of love and joy.

  5. Courtney,

    Happy Birthday! We celebrate the same birthday, which is why I love the month of June.

    Thank you for your inspiration and encouragement to be more every day, while consuming less.

    blessings,
    John

  6. Happy Birthday Courtney 🙂

    Thanks for taking the time to share love with us 🙂
    This is true, yes, I want more love. And I want to
    appreciate all the love that is here now.

    Thank you again 🙂

  7. Happy Birthday, Courtney! So glad that Guinness is continuing to do well. I, like you, view 45 as the midpoint, which for me was last year. Most of the time that makes me feel great, thinking that if I’m lucky, I still have half my life ahead of me, but I’m also conscious of the reality of impermanence, giving this moment now as much attention as I can, knowing this is the only one like it, maybe the only one left, keeping my heart open to all of it. xo

  10. Happy birthday my friend! Mid point, but far from the middle. You always set yourself apart and I’m lucky to have you as my friend. Give Guiness an extra birthday cupcake, he deserves it. And so do you. XOXO

  12. A very happy birthday to you! I am glad to hear your pup is feeling more like his old self. Best wishes for good health to you both!

  14. Happy Birthday! And life gets better as you age. “Aged to perfection” is the motto.

  16. Happy birthday, Courtney! I wish you the best year ever. Funny, I never thought of 45 as midlife, but they way you explain I can see why you do. Most important though is that each moment is precious! Let’s go for love!

  17. What a marvelous interpretation of the phrase “make love”! Thank you, and happy birthday!

  18. This is beautiful. It reminds me that I’ve been meaning to send anonymous notes or small gifts to all my wonderful friends.

    Happy birthday 🙂

  19. A very happy birthday to you from Germany and thank you for sharing your thoughts, inspiration and wisdom with us!

  20. First off, happy birthday! You have been such an inspiration to me, and I wouldn’t be where I am in my business without you. Second, this post is very similar to the one I wrote today about looking at summer through a child’s eyes. Kids are so full of love, and if we slow down we can be too.

  21. Happy Birthday, Courtney! What a lovely topic and challenge! I hope you get to spend the entire day making love to everyone and everything you encounter!

  22. how fitting, i got a hand written note from you in the mail today! i’m glad your pup is doing well and happy birthday!

  23. Happy birthday, Courtney! Thank you for your encouraging and challenging words! You are such a gift.

  24. Happy birthday, Courtney! Such simple and beautiful message. Wish you all the best. Thank you for everything you have done for my blog. Blessings!

  25. Happy Birthday Courtney! I think you are very right on about time and love. Time only matters because of love. Blessings.

  26. Happy Birthday, Courtney!
    Lovely post.
    Simple, thoughtful and beautiful, just like its author.

  28. Happy birthday! Have a lovely loving day

    Thank you for taking some time in this special day to share some love with us.

    Lots of love

  29. Thank you Courtney for the continuous inspiration that you provide through your writing.

    Happy Birthday to you! Forty-five is an excellent age and time of life! The world is a better place for having you in it.

    Many blessings.

  30. “When you wish you lived closer to your family, you don’t want time, you want love.”

    Thanks so much for putting things in the right perspective. Let’s all consciously make time for the things we love.

  31. Hope you’re having a beautiful day Courtney, enjoying time with your family. Thank you for sharing so much on your blog, it’s wonderful inspiration, it really is x

  32. Belated Birthday wishes.
    So true about wishing you lived nearer your Family. I miss my Mother ( died 7 years ago). I was lucky to have her as many wonderful years that I did. For several years when I went through some tough times with my girls we all lived together. Night after night we went to bed and would do the “Walton’s” Good night routine. It was 11:11 night after night. Now when ever I see 11:11 it brings my Mother back to me. It is amazing how often it happens and at the oddest times and places! But it is like a warm embrace and I feel very near her.

  33. Happy Birthday, sweet Courtney! Feel blessed to know you. Your work inspires me daily. I aspire to be more like you in the work that I do and share. Not there yet…but I’m a work in progress. 😉

  35. Happy birthday all the way from Malaysia. You are making changes around the world. Just to let you know, i started my Project 33 yesterday. Thank you for such an inspiring post.

  36. Thank you for yet another lovely and thought provoking post! Much love to you and Guinness xx

  37. I love to buy lunch for people. It’s something so simple and inexpensive, but it really feels great to receive a free lunch. I think back to any time anyone bought my lunch, and it really made my day, so now I try to do that for others when I can.

  38. Happy B-day Courtney!
    Thank you for your wise words and the beautiful picture!
    My way of “making love” to friends is by sending surprise postcards in the mail. 🙂

  39. What a beautiful way to spend your birthday on the blog 🙂
    When I’m properly motivated, I write letters every Sunday. A great way to calm down and share myself with close friends 🙂

  40. A bit late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY! I hope you had an awesome birthday and felt the love from your family and friends. Thanks again for writing this blog!

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