Next Level Love

Next level love. WTF is that? It’s love that is found at the deepest level. I never knew it existed. We were married and it was pretty good. We got along great, had tons of sex and traveled quite a bit. It couldn’t have gotten any better. But did. It also got deeper. Here’s why…

Tragedy hit. We lost everything. Our homes, jobs and money. Then my wife’s health started to decline. Family members were being lost. My wife became fully disabled. And then the worst case scenario… we lost our daughter. In fact, soon thereafter, I lost my brother, father, aunts and a few friends. But here’s the thing. My love for life, and especially my wife, went to the next level.

I, for the most part have been pretty in tune with gratitude. But when you lose everything, it hits differently. Most would never know all that I have gone through. I tend to focus on the positive. {That’s what a life long meditation practice will do for you.} But my wife…watching a warrior become wounded and vulnerable, made me love her on a whole new level.

It’s easy to love someone when it’s new. Or, when there aren’t any stressors. But add sickness, money issues, death, lawsuits and so on, it is challenging to stay connected. But it was the opposite for us. We kept on talking. We shared our experience. The trust increased. The respect increased. It was next level love.

I know it’s hard to believe, but we have never had an argument. We are so good at communicating, there are no surprises. And when life turned upside down for us, we increased our prayer and meditation time together. Our lives look completely different from a few decades ago. But we’re blessed. And more importantly, we try and be a blessing to others.

We went through Hell, and did it with style and class. The harder it got, the more we trusted. The more we lost, the more we leaned into each other. And just when it looked like we wouldn’t be able to take another step, next level love appeared. Why? Because we built a relationship on respect. The sex was amazing and the money was great. But in the end, our salvation was joy. I gave everything up for her to be happy. She in turn did the same for me. And next level love became our reality.