Author: Happy Wanderer

An Exploration of Love

Join me on a five-day exploration of love.
Be inspired by words, art and music to explore what love means to you and how you want it to manifest in your life.

Full Playlist: An Exploration of Love

Day 1 – Defining Love

1. Love is – @humanityinart, Nanaimo, BC, Canada
2. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – STUDIO BE, New Orleans, LA, USA
3. Love, Distillery Historic District Toronto, ON, Canada

Questions to contemplate
What does love mean to me?
What are the different types of love I experience or want to experience?
What does love feel like?
Who or what do I think of when I think of love?
What’s one word that describes love to me?

Quotes to explore
“Love is like the wind, you can’t see it, but you can feel it.” — Nicholas Sparks

“If you do not know what you feel, then it is difficult to choose love.” — Bell Hooks

“We can only learn to love by loving.” — Iris Murdoch

“When I look at you, I can feel it. I look at you, and I’m home.” — Finding Nemo

“Love is a friendship set to music.” — Joseph Campbell

Songs to flow to in your exploration
1. What is Love? – Haddaway
2. Is this Love? – Bob Marley & The Wailers
3. What is this Love – Blue Rodeo
4. Lovesong – Jessy J
5. Must be the Love (Enamour Remix) – ARTY, Nadia Ali, BT, Enamour
6. This is What Falling in Love Feels Like – JVKE
7. You can’t Hurry Love – The Supremes
8. In the Name of Love – Saxity
9. What’s Love Got to Do with it – Kygo, Tina Turner
10. I want to Know What Love is – Foreigner
Playlist (song 1-10)

Mantra to meditate on: “I welcome and choose love”

Day 2 – Self Love

1. Love Me Anyways – @unfukyourself, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2. You are Enough – @self.enough, Redondo Beach, CA, USA
3. I Love Myself and You Hate Me For it – Barbara Kruger, Los Angeles, CA, USA
4. Self Love, Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Questions to contemplate
Do I believe I am worthy of love?
In what ways do I show love for myself?
When was the last time I told myself “I love you”?
What do I love most about myself?
What are my top five personal values?

Quotes to explore
“Before life’s purpose comes self-love. You must love yourself before you can love your expression of self.”

“Self-love is the foundation of our loving practice. Without it, our other efforts to love fail. Giving ourselves love we provide our inner being with the opportunity to have the unconditional love we may have always longed to receive from someone else.” — Bell Hooks

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha

“If you love yourself, you love others. If you hate yourself, you hate others. Because in relationships with others… the other is nothing but a mirror.”

Songs to flow to in your exploration
11. Love Myself – Hailee Steinfeld
12. Good as Hell – Lizzo
13. If You Don’t Love Yourself – The Script
14. i – Kendrick Lamar
15. Self Love – Jayson Lyric, Nevaeh
16. Be Good to Yourself – Journey
17. Could You Be Loved – Bob Marley & The Wailers
18. Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself) – Ne-Yo
19. Love Me More – Sam Smith
20. LOVE – Jhené Aiko
Playlist (song 11-20)

Mantra to meditate on: “I love myself, and every day I fall more in love with myself”

Day 3 – Receiving Love

1. Afternoon Kitten Cuddles – Stamford, CT, USA
2. Love is Everywhere – Keukenhof, Lisse, Netherlands
3. Christina Angelina & FANAKAPAN – Los Angeles, CA, USA

Questions to contemplate
What does it mean to allow another person to truly love me?
How do I want to be loved?
Do I believe I am open to being loved? How do I know?
What is the most vulnerable way I let someone into my life?
What does being loved feel like for me?

Quotes to explore
“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” — Maya Angelou

“I saw that you were perfect, and so I loved you. Then I saw that you were not perfect and I loved you even more.” — Angelita Lim

“Love isn’t something you find. Love is something that finds you.” — Loretta Young

Songs to flow to in your exploration
21. Just the Way You are – Bruno Mars
22. Love Like This – Faith Evans
23. Let me Love You – DJ Snake, Justin Bieber
24. Own It – Stormzy, Burna Boy, Ed Sheeran
25. Do You – Troy Boi
26. Love Tonight – Shouse, David Guetta
27. Love Me Harder – Ariana Grande, The Weeknd
28. Learn Ya – 6LACK
29. Better Together – Jack Johnson
30. The Heart Asks Pleasure First – Michael Nyman
Playlist (song 21-30)

Mantra to meditate on: “I accept and receive more love, abundance and harmony into my life”

Day 4 – Giving Love

1. Love Bomber – Kai & Aaron Kai, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2. F*ck I Love You – Fuck I Love You Movement, Toronto, ON, Canada
3. Choose Love – Los Angeles, CA, USA [pls DM me if you know artist]

Questions to contemplate
How do I want to love?
What are my love languages?
How do I know when I love someone?
What do I want people to feel when they’re around me?
How has the way my family loved affected the way I give and receive love?

Quotes to explore
“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music, a little more poetry, and a little more dance to it.” ― Osho

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Songs to flow to in your exploration
31. Be my Lover– La Bouche
32. My love – Justin Timberlake, T.I.
33. Somebody Loves You – Aly & Fila, Plumb, Paul Thomas
34. I Love You Always Forever– Donna Lewis
35. Only Want You – Rita Ora
36. LOVE – Kendrick Lamar, Zacari
37. I Will Always Love You – Dolly Parton
38. I Just Called to Say I Love You – Stevie Wonder
39. That’s the Way Love Goes – Janet Jackson
40. No Man No Cry – Oliver Koletzki, Jimmy Sax
Playlist (song 31-40)

Mantra to meditate on: “Today my heart is open, and I am ready to love.”

Day 5 – Manifesting & Celebrating Love

1. Love Bus – Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa
2. AMOR – Robert Indiana, Philadelphia, PA, USA
3. LOVE is all you need – Keukenhof, Lisse, Netherlands

Questions to contemplate
How do I create space for love?
Who do I love and what am I doing about it?
Are my actions guided by love or by fear?
What are three words that describe the aspirations I have for my love life?
What does healthy love look like to me?

Quotes to explore
“Find love in each moment.”

“We are most alive when we are in love.” — John Updike

“There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved” – George Sand

“Love doesn’t make the world go ’round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” – Franklin P. Jones

“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything.” — Bil Keane

Songs to flow to in your exploration
41. Big Love– Louis the Child, EARTHGANG
42. All I Want – Tube & Berger, Goatchy
43. When Love Takes Over – Davida Guetta, Kelly Rowland
44. Where Have You Been – Rihanna
45. Lovesong – Snake River Conspiracy
46. Love Life – Desire
47. Realla – TOKiMONSTA, Anderson .Paak
48. Dance for Me Wallis – Abel Korzeniowski
49. Cosmic Love – Florence + the Machine
50. Love Mantra – Dossé-Via
Playlist (song 41-50)

Mantra to meditate on: “Every day and in every way, I attract more and more love into my life”

Mexico City, Mexico

CDMX Visited Winter, 2019
Favorite spots
Spend time taking in history and art at Museo Nacional de Antropología and Museo de Arte Moderno, both located in the absolutely stunning Bosque de Chapultepec which is worth spending a morning or afternoon exploring.

Explore the art, concept and vintage shops in the La Roma and La Condesa neighborhood.
VOID Condesa, Camino Store, HAPPENING Roma Norte, Goodbye Folk Vintage, Vintage Hoe, FONART – Galeria Reforma.

While wandering La Condesa and La Roma, check out monuments like Fuente de Cibeles, Parque Espana, Glorieta de Insurgentes, El Angel de la Independencia. Plaza Rio de Janerio, Glorieta de La Palma, Monumento a Colon.

Grab Breakfast or at least a pastry from Lardo.
Eat tacos at La Guerrerense Condesa, grab churros from Churrería El Moro and hot chocolate from Tierra Garat Jalapa or Oscuro Puro.
Grab sunset drinks at Terraza Cha Cha Cha – Botanero Tropical and take in the view of Plaza de República.
Do dinner at Amaya and a night cap at Bosforo

2023 Reading List

Keeping track of the books I read in 2023. What is on your reading list?
Other lists: 2022 reads, 2020-2021 reads, books written by amazing humans in my life.

FICTION

  1. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois – Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
  2. Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson
  3. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
  4. Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
  5. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
  6. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
  7. Beloved – Toni Morrison
  8. Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami
  9. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  10. Hard-boiled Wonderland & End of the World – Haruki Murakami

NON-FICTION

  1. The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles  – Bruce Lipton
  2. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman – Nora Ephron
  3. No One Tells You This: A Memoir – Glynnis MacNicol
  4. Scattered Minds – Gabor Maté
  5. Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  6. $100M Offers – Alex Hormozi
  7. Everybody Writes – Ann Handley
  8. All About Love – Bell Hooks
  9. Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki
  10. This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol – Annie Grace

The Invitation – Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what “planets are squaring your moon.”
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain mine or your own without moving to “hide it” or “fade it” or “fix it.”

I want to know if you can be with joy mine or your own if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful to “be realistic” to “remember the limitations of being human.”

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day.
And if you can source your own life from God’s presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure yours and mine and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.