The Cup That Overfloweth

My quips on the love that is often forgotten.

The new year is upon us all.

What, not so long ago, unfolded before me as a treacherous and cumbersome road, has now brought me to a new path, one that is promisingly optimistic. 2025 began on some very rough footing. The end of a relationship, the end of high school, the beginning of a life for which I felt grossly unprepared. The irony was that I felt so alone, despite my dearly beloved drawing near to me in my solitude.

Of the many disappointing facets of this life, here is one. It is all too common to be swallowed by your own self pity to the point that you don’t feel the love that is all around you.

As horribly cliche as it sounds, the budding year-of-our-Lord 2025 found me blinded by circumstance, by the familiar pattern of my life. Wake up, toil, worship the vain, starve the soul, laugh in the face of that devil that is burnout, go home. Rinse and repeat. When habituated, just about anything can become comfortable, even something as unnatural as starvation.

I had love in my life then, of course I did, but I also had a lot of other feelings I confused for love. These vanities didn't fill my proverbial cup with anything other than smoke, the vapid vapors of this life, paltry and fleeting.

I once thought that the greatest earthly love I would ever have was going to be that shared between myself and a man. Myself and that man. Myself and whichever man God had set aside for me. Now, I believe that is certainly a blessing, and there will be a time for that, eventually. But for now, I am content to know that my life is already so full of love, and it always has been.

To what love do I refer?

The love I see in the eyes of my sisters. It shines brightest through tears of laughter that roll down our ruddy faces. I see it staring back at a me in the warm chocolate irises we all share.

The love I hear in the voices of my dearest friends. It buzzes in my ears with every hello and after each goodbye. It warms the air in my lungs and the blood in my bones through each heartfelt conversation, passing joke, and

The love I see in the smiles of my brothers. Their faces contorted, eyes wild, all in an effort to coax a laugh from me. They remind me to be loud and silly and savage.

The love I feel in my mother’s embrace. A love that is soft and familiar, one that has permeated my life for as long as I can remember. I often wonder if the curve of her shoulder was carved for my head to rest on it.

The love I hear in my father’s laugh. A sound that booms through the air like the horn of a ship sailing homeward. It lightens the hearts of everyone in our home, and inspires giddy smiles on everyone’s faces.

The love that is echoed in my camera roll, in my plethora of polaroids. It shines, that glint of a camera flash in the eyes of my friends and family, past and present.

The love that I haven’t even experienced yet. The love that waits for me in the cross-hairs of the cross roads that I am coming to.

The love that is guiding me there, to those pivotal decisions and deadlines.

The love that will flow from me into everything I do, every blog I write, every friend I make, every meal I savor, and every smile I steal from the grip of this cruel world.

I know that love exists because my cup is full of it. It’s overflowing out into everything I do and pouring out into an overwhelming stream, guiding me home to He who is Love.

Maybe Luis Miguel said it best.

Yo para querer no necesito una razón
I don't need a reason to love
Me sobra mucho
I have a lot
Pero mucho corazón
But a lot of heart

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The Fifth Rule of Sophistry: Love is often found in the little things.