My love project is one month old, and I think (fear, wildly hope) I’ve given birth to a giant. There are so many cool things in the works, and I’m scribbling more ideas (yours and mine) all the time. I’m in the process of creating a j’s Love Project page to try and keep track of it all. I hope to have the page finished this week. Feel free to crack whips. #toughlove

January has been the month of spontaneous connection. In January, I made three surprise phone calls; sent six postcards (four of them homemade!); typed four love texts – one to a sick friend, one to a distant friend, one to share my moon, and one to tell a funny story; I had coffee with two friends and dinner with two others; I left “thinking of you” messages for three people and wrote long email love letters to two more; I sent a card to someone who was down and shared a poem with someone dear; I tweeted (and DM’d) my love countless times, stayed in an uncomfortable conversation (twice), and walked around a lake holding hands with someone precious.

I admit I stretched the meaning of the word “spontaneous.” My coffee and dinner dates were, strictly speaking, not spontaneous, but they were surprising and funny, occasionally alarming, always soul-filling. And anyway, we’re talking fearless love here. There are no rules.

I wish I’d thought to keep track of all the emails and cards and postcards and tweets that have been sent to me during the course of this month. Especially during my moment of doubt, I felt the strength of the community we’ve built here and realized how incredibly lucky I am.

I’ve been in conversation with some of you off-blog, in email, on Twitter, on Facebook and in person. Those conversations have been amazing to me, more valuable and touching than you can imagine. In one of them, I said that I was silly enough to truly believe that if people take this project seriously, if they make conscious, fearless, proactive love the goal every day, they will find themselves (and their world) transformed.