As we near the end of each Love Project month, I start musing over what I want to say about it. Some months are easy, their effects on me so profound, I feel fundamentally altered. The month of hugs was like that, and the month of self-love broke me open in ways I never could have predicted.

August has been the month of grand gestures, and I’ve been wondering how to tackle this post. I’d kind of hoped to come back and tell you about my spectacular feats of love – a sonnet written in smoke signals, for instance, or a giant heart-shaped chocolate souffle.

Sadly, I didn’t do anything like that.

What I did do was follow my heart, trusting it in a way I don’t usually – fully, and without question. Instead of letting shyness or fear rule the day, I acted on my best, most loving impulses. When the risk of being embarrassed or rejected made me want to retreat, I stood my ground. I stepped forward. I reached out. If vulnerability is the key to fearless love (and I think it is), then during the month of August, I’ve been downright badass.

At the beginning of the month, I wondered about the word “grand.” I didn’t know what I meant by it exactly but I thought it had to do with “leaping when you’re scared, loving big, loving more, showing your heart in spectacularly real and enormous ways.”

That’s what I did, and it was a little like dancing with the universe. Everything I put out there came back, magnified. Love begets love, no doubt about it.

And now, with two days left in August, there’s still plenty of time do something grand. Let’s all be badass.