Following the drops of waterfalls.

I was standing on the deck of the sailboat, watching the morning sunlight shimmer across the swells along Diamondhead beach.
Mornings here are the colors of a Spanish shawl.
Brilliant in every way; sometimes I wish the entire day could be a sunrise.
Standing there, I watched dolphins glide past the bow, I'm not sure how many - but at least thirty. They are sleek like oil, slipping in and out of the waves, undaunted by our boat.
It is an amazing morning.

I have this song stuck in my head today, by the Monkeys; its called "I'm a believer". I kept singing it over and over again.. but just the one line that goes, "...who.. do you love? Who.. do you love?" Except in my mind, I've been singing it differently; I sing, "..what...do you love?" What...do you love?".
Once I finished working on the sailboat this morning the song stayed with me on my bike ride, and then with me while I repaired my surfboard. Again and again, I kept singning to myself, "What.. do you love?" When you sing something one hundred times, you start thinking about what you are saying.. and you start answering yourself.

So I asked myself, "WHAT...do you love?".
The answer, which came spilling out of my primed mind.. was real.
In my head I started seeing images.. just tiny moments filled with faces and places, and days - the most beautiful things I have known.
What I love, what I love, what I love.


Drop everything, drop all your facades, and your ego, and drop your fear, and your pride, and your hate, and your impatience, and for a second rememeber the things that are REAL, that you aren't striving for, or chasing or anticipating.
What do you love?
You will probably be suprised.

I love warm, sunshine filled afternoons in our family's house in the early summer; I love the two fans that hum when you turn them on, and I love standing in the middle of that room and getting bathed in soft coolness.
I love talking to my twin brother, I love that he is bigger and stronger than me, and that I always have to try to be as cool as him. I love that he is my brother.
I love my sister's hugs, they feel honest and tender; in a world that has become fake - she is real, and I absolutely love that.
I love my dad grabbing me on the shoulders when I am sitting down and squeezing so hard it hurts.. it always makes me feel completely loved.
I love my mother's smile - if anything can make me smile, it is her smile - it is beautiful and warm and kind and genuine.
I love being hungry and smelling a homemade meal, knowing you will eat it soon.
I love driving early in the morning to the beach, before the sun comes up.
I love the taste of blackberries from the fridge.. when you find one that you remember picking, and you savor it, because you know where it came from.
I love my grandpa's stories, and how they are still funny - 100000 times later.
I love southern accents, and people that are simple, unpretenteous and have wrinkles that they earned.
I love hiking in through the Redwood forest, and touching the trees and imagining them as tiny trees, and listening to them breathe.
I love running into the ocean with a surfboard in hand and the feeling of the first wave that splashes over my body.
I love road trips, and driving with no place in mind; I love driving with Trent; knowing someone that notices the subtlty of beauty and who questions everything.
I love playing my few songs on the guitar and not being afraid of what people think.. I love making emotion.
I love how my grandma tells me, "Be safe and have fun... and if you can't be safe... just have fun."
I love taking photos... and knowing that if I had never been born, that moment would never have been captured.
I love the way I can feel paint through the brush.
I love being drunk and dancing until my feet hurt, and then taking of my shoes and shirt, and dancing until my body hurts, and then laughing until my face hurts.
I love standing in the middle of nowhere and roaring at the top of my lungs like a wild animal.
I love being unpredictible and freightning sometimes, simply because I can.
I love the way Josh talks about simple things.
I love the feeling of courage.
I love breaking rules for the sake of keeping my sanity and for the sake of chosing choice over complacency.
I love finding a waterfall, watching the drops fall, and following a single drop all the way down.. I feel like the drop was waiting for me to show up.. just so it could dive off gloriously to show off for me.
ETC...
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There is so much to love. Today,I remember what I love.
I cannot imagine knowing what I love, and chasing anything else.

What do you love? Really




(Andrew Tipton)