"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well." Vincent Van Gogh

And people think Van Gogh was crazy.  Well, maybe he was, but boy, what he describes here is a wonderful way to live a life. The aliveness he brought to his paintings testifies to his love for his subjects, be they human, flowers, fields, or stars, and I'm thinking that his ability to "love many things" is the key to his genius.

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place."-- Zora Neale Hurston

Your hungry soul craves love. Feed it well. All flavors of love are welcome: romantic, parent/child, brotherly, spiritual, love of doing, playing, being, competing, art, acting, music, comedy: all love, one love, nothing is rejected, all are consumed with gusto and shouts of "More, More!".

"Do all things with love."-- Og Mandino

Ahhh, this is such good advice! When we do all things with love, we find ourselves completely in the moment, enjoying the feel of, say, computer keys clicking away underneath our fingers, the sound they make, and the march of type across the blank page.  It all adds up to the enjoyment of being present, which brings luster, a sense of peace, and feelings of ease and joy to even the most mundane activities--like writing this blog.  Amen.

"Take part in love week." Vishen Lakhiani

Love week.  Like the Secret Santa, but really lovely!
Check out this video that describes what happens and why it's important.
http://www.mindvalley.com/culture/love-week#sthash.gBpjKF0V.dpbs

"If you can't be/with the one you love/love the one you're with"-- Crosby, Stills and Nash

Sounds like a line straight from the '60s, and it is, but there's a germ of truth here.  Love in it's purity is object-free.
True love is an act of inclusion, and it must begin with self acceptance; for then the love one feels for another is not a search for wholeness, it's an extension of the love one feels for oneself, for the world, and for the universe at large.
Love without object is love without seclusion. Love that seeks to isolate, make special, control, or seclude is not love at all.

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

This quote reveals not just a great man, but a great truth.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was wise enough to see that the answer to oppression, anger, and hate is not more oppression, anger and hate.  It is only and always love.
He understood that the seeds of love lie in every heart, and that they grow if they have the opportunity to bask in the sunshine of regard and be bathed by the water of compassion.  By meeting hate with love, he starved the weeds of hate by sowing and nurturing the seeds of love. It took great courage and great trust to do this, and may we all find it in our hearts to do the same.

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."-- Lao Tzu

When you are loved, you have the strength to overcome temptation for the sake of they who love you.
When you love--and the best example is a parents love for a child--protecting that child brings out the grizzly bear in even the most mild mannered mom or dad.
You can have these same protective feelings for anything you love: our mother earth or the god you worship for example.
Hopefully we will learn to love ourselves with the same fervor.