It has been a bumpy week. Last week was one of those weeks in which hard things weren’t happening to me, but to people around me that I love, and I didn’t feel like I could do much to help. The ways in which I could offer help seemed very limited, and it made me think about where I am in my life, and what is important.

The most important thing is clearly love. Period.

I’m not talking about romance, sex, or even familial love. It is the deep love of all things you know and see. Compassion for other beings and systems in nature. It is the love that drives us to serve. It is the root of kindness, generosity, and gratitude.

I’m trying to foster that love and let it drive my actions. I can’t always access it though. Fear, anger, or even impatience build a stone wall around it. Lately, I’ve felt like it was more absent than usual. When it isn’t available, I don’t have it to feed others.

We are, after all, supposed to feed love to others. It feels like the whole point of being here.

Last week, when I was very angry, I wasn’t feeding others love. That’s bad. Like, you just looked up and noticed a tornado was two houses away bad.

In thinking about how to avoid the anger, I started thinking about what I have to offer others, and how to put myself in situations where I can be my best self, and foster the love I have to give.

Knowing I have some blindspots when it comes to introspection and analysis, I began to ask folks “What am I good at?”, some were coworkers, some friends. Here is what they came up with.

• Lots of people trust you.
• Empathy
• You help people see things in themselves.
• You see things in people.
• Leading people
• Huggin’
• Motivating people
• Organizing my backpack
• Making people feel wonderful and loved
• Hugs
• Empathy
• Spokesperson for a brand
• Tons o’ passion
• Community outreach
• Compassion
• Patience
• Equality
• Butt stuff
• Humanitarian rights
• Tech news
• Human resources
• Intuition
• People skills
• Everything
• You know a lot about a lot of different things/topics in this world
• Planning and organizing
• Giving a damn
• Luvin’

I really believe if you can find the intersection of things you love and things you are good at, you can live in love, and avoid some of the anger, fear, and impatience. I’m going to keep working to get there. No, I didn’t ask for clarification on what “butt stuff” was, but it gave me a good laugh.