This morning, as I scrolled through Facebook, I saw a post from my brother’s fiance.  It was a picture of several bouquets of flowers, a card, and a beautiful heart necklace.  Yesterday, May 19, is one year to their wedding date.  So, he sent her on a scavenger hunt, following a trail of clues that ended at one of their favorite spots.  It was there that my brother gave her more flowers and the heart necklace for her to wear on their wedding day.  Talk about romantic!  He hit the ball out of the park!

I am drawn to what a scavenger is.  It is usually associated with animals in search of food.  For us, it means to follow a trail of clues or items to lead to a destination.  In its root form, a scavenger is someone who “looks at, inspects.”

What my brother did yesterday was leave a trail of love, a trail of clues and items that she was left to find, look at, inspect, interpret, and lead her to another place of love.  My hope is that these clues led her to a deeper inspection of what truly is manifesting in her life: love.  My hope is that each clue led her more intimately into their relationship, that these clues were manifestations of who she and my brother are.  And, in the end, she was greeted with the greatest clue to their love: my brother.

This kind of “trail of love” is available to any one of us.  If we truly believe that we are created in love by God or our higher power, then that love is manifested in so many different ways on our pathway of life - through our partner/spouse, through our children or grandchildren, through our siblings, through our family members, through our friendships, through our work and labor, through our abilities, through our limitations, through our giftedness, and through our need for others.  These clues are there everyday of our lives.  Do we have the eyes, ears, noses and senses to experience them?

If we are in need of knowing that we are loved, start down that trail of love, your own personal scavenger hunt.  In the end, you may be surprised by what is waiting for you there.