Is love something you find, or something you build?

You are asking whether love is found or built. Almost everything you have been told says found. The story ends at the recognition, and what follows is assumed to look after itself. It does not. I left a palace for this and I can tell you plainly: the leaving was one day. The singing was every day after. First, notice what the finding story costs you. If love is found, then difficulty means you found wrong, and the reasonable response to difficulty is to look again. That belief has ended a great many relationships that were merely in an ordinary winter. Second, watch what building actually consists of. It is unremarkable. Attention paid when you do not feel like paying it. The question asked twice. The small return, daily, to a person you have stopped seeing clearly because they are always there. Third, do not wait for the feeling to lead. The feeling follows the practice at least as often as it precedes it. Sing first; the devotion arrives while you are singing. Fourth, keep some of the finding. The recognition was real. It was a beginning, not a verdict. What would you do today if love were a practice rather than a discovery?