You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch…and his small heart grew three sizes that day! – Dr. Seuss.

Sometimes, love is a verb. Love is a decision. It’s an action available to those able to sustain open-hearted vulnerability. It is not for the meek or timid, love. The risk is great and the reward greater, and yet love is not for the faint of heart, because, you know, fear.

Love is actually for everyone, but comes more easily to the open-hearted, warm-spirited the self-confident. A joyful demeanor facilitates love, as does a smile; most effectively when delivered into a mirror.

The science of love is our theme this month. As we delve into the feelings, emotions and mystery of love, we encounter science, forever tasked with explaining and rationalizing, based on empirical evidence and peer-reviewed scientific research. I am not mocking science. I love science and am fascinated to understand how and why the chemical composition of the brain and body create their biochemical and emotional/behavioral dance. And yet the mystery persists.

Through all the varieties of love, it is the mystery of this organ; both its function and symbolism, that is at the center; open-hearted, broken-hearted, heart-centered, heart-felt, heart-wrenching, compassionate heart, lonely heart; in all these cases, you’ve touched my “heart”.

We are all connected through the heart. We are all connected through love. Perhaps the most important love connection we have is with our self, first. So, as I start to take down the protective fence around my own heart, I invite you to do the same. Then seek out those with whom you have a meaningful connection and those with whom you do not; make deep eye contact, share an authentic embrace and release some significant quantities of oxytocin into your bloodstream.

Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,

Was singing without any presents at all!

He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming! It came!

Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his grinch feet ice-cold in the snow,

Stood puzzling and puzzling. "How could it be so?

It came without ribbons! It came without tags!

It came without packages, boxes, or bags!"

He puzzled and puzzed till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.

Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!

And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say,

That the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!

Blessings to us all as we celebrate love and remember to feel good, live simply and laugh more.