Bonus: Learning Love with Dr Mark Hicks

In this bonus episode I speak with author Dr Mark Hicks. Mark poured his heart and soul into his book "Learning Love: Building a Life That Matters and Healthy Relationships That Last.”  He says in today's world, where loneliness and conflict are pressing issues, he’s confident that his insights can offer hope and guidance for those seeking deeper connections. Check out the Learning Love with author Dr Mark Hicks, bonus episode.

Links:
Mark's website
Mark's book (Amazon)
Mark's LinkedIn page

Transcript

Bill Simpson: Host
00:05
Hi and welcome to the Men on the Path to Love podcast bonus episode Learning Love with author Dr Mark Hicks. I'm Bill Simpson, your host. I coach men who want to stop suffering in relationship and who want a deeper sense of love and connection. I coach them how to do it and how to be the best version of themselves and live the life they love. In this bonus episode, I talk with author and host of the Learning Love podcast, dr Mark Hicks. He's written a book entitled Learning Love Building a Life that Matters and Healthy Relations, relationships. That last he says. In today's world where loneliness and conflict are pressing issues, he's confident that his insights can offer hope and guidance for those seeking deeper connections. Well, you know, I'm all about that, so I had to have a conversation with him. So stick around, you just might learn something about love. It's the Men on the Path to Love podcast. Welcome, mark, to Men on the Path to Love. 

Dr Mark Hicks: Guest
01:15
Thank you Great to be here. Thank you for having me. 

Bill SimpsonHost
01:18
Yeah, man, I love the title of your book Learning Love, building a Life that Matters and Healthy Relationships that Last. I want to get into your book and what it's all about, but first I always ask my guests tell me your story, man. How did you get to where you are with this book and your life? 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
01:36
Yeah, well, I've really had two career tracks, sometimes separate, sometimes they've merged together. One is that I have a master's degree in mental health counseling. I've worked as a therapist counselor in various capacities. I also have a faith-based track to my career. I've worked in church and nonprofits and mission organizations of different kinds and a lot of times those were separate. Sometimes they merge together. For instance, I worked for several years as a director of an addiction recovery program. It was a faith-based program that we used a lot of psychological training, of course, and counseling in that. I also did my doctoral dissertation on recovery at the same time I was working in that program. 

So it was really fascinating to have both the hands-on experience and the academic at the same time. And all that has led me working with people on a spiritual level, a psychological level, to a place that I believe that love is the answer as we apply it to all the things in our life. 

02:39
That it applies to not only family, but friendships, to coworkers. Those are different relationships, of course, different types of connections, but they're all connections and that's what leads to success in every area. When we know how to build healthy relationships, we know how to build careers, we know how to build communities, we know how to build families because we know how to build those relationships. 

My book is called Learning Love, because that's exactly what it is. It is a learned skill set. I want people to understand that from a spiritual standpoint, from a psychological standpoint, we can learn how to build those relationships. Love doesn't have to be abstract, it doesn't have to be a fantasy. It is a learned skill and a lot of people don't learn that skill because they come out of dysfunctional families. 

03:26
Exactly, but you can learn it later. 

Bill SimpsonHost
03:27
Yeah, it's never too late to learn about love, exactly Because love is in there somewhere. We just got to find it. So, in your book On your Path to Love, what is it that you're teaching? How do we get to that place? 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
03:40
I teach five components of love. If you learn and practice these five components, anybody can build those healthy relationships. As I said, a lot of people come out of dysfunctional families or out of bad relationships, go through a divorce and wonder if love is even possible. It is. We learn it through the five components of love and it is a continual practice. If you like, I'll go through all five of them briefly. 

Bill SimpsonHost
04:05
Yes, by all means, please do. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
04:07
The first one is grief, and that's a strange place to start. A lot of people believe that when we talk about love we're going to be talking about bubblegum and butterflies. Everything's sweet and beautiful and we'll get to that. That is part of love, obviously. But if you speak to someone who has put up emotional walls, keeps people at arm's length, pushes away from connections, is defensive in their life, those are people that have been hurt and to some extent that's all of us. No one gets through this life without scars and we're going to get our hearts broken on occasion, sometimes in small ways that just kind of build up over time. 

Sometimes we have major losses in our life that just they leave a hole in our heart. But what I want people to know is that you can live a really good life with a hole in your heart, and that's the purpose of grief. We're not going to do away with the hole in our heart. That's going to be there. We're not going to undo the tragedies of life, but you can live a really good life with a hole in your heart and that's how that's our comeback story, that's how we stay connected is learning to live a life of love even with that broken heart. Even with that hole in our heart and those emotional scars, if we have that capacity, we can come back from the hurts of life and stay connected and have those loving connections. 

05:29
The second component is emotion. That's the one everyone knows. We have to have emotional connections. That's easy for some people, for other people that have been hurt, for other people that have certain personality types or that were raised a certain way. They may have difficulty sharing emotions, they may have difficulty showing those emotions, and that's okay. We don't have to change our personality. It's a learned skill set. 

You can practice showing people that you care, and for some people, for instance, love might be a loaded word. It might have been used as a weapon in a family you grew up in. Then you don't have to use that word. Say things like I appreciate. You Learn to say thank you when people do nice things for you. Just those little acts, practicing showing emotion, yeah, yeah, it just becomes a skill set that we can all develop. It just takes practice. 

Bill SimpsonHost
06:22
The third one. Well, I'm going to interrupt you because, especially how and you know this how the brain works, it's like we may know about love, but if we don't practice it, if we don't repeat it over and over, even if it doesn't feel right or feel natural, we got to get it into that subconscious so that it does feel that way right. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
06:43
Yeah, our brain learns to do what we train it to do. It has certain instinctual responsibilities and that's one of the reasons we focus so much on negative emotions, because if we get hurt, our brain files that away and says stay away from that. 

Bill SimpsonHost
06:58
Right. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
06:58
But we can also train our brain to see those good things and to make those connections and to share those moments that are beautiful in relationships. And that takes a little practice for some folks, and that's okay. Just practice it, you'll get better at it. 

Bill SimpsonHost
07:13
Exactly the more you practice, the more it'll sink in. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
07:16
It'll be natural. Your brain literally learns those neurological pathways to learn to do that. It just takes practice. If it doesn't feel natural, it's just because you haven't done it before, and that's okay. 

Bill SimpsonHost
07:27
It's getting out of your comfort zone a little bit too. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
07:29
And it is. Yeah, it's a comfort zone and a lot of times, particularly as men, we've been taught to protect ourselves, to give that tough exterior, and one of the things I always ask is who made that rule? If we're following these rules, let's at least know who made them. 

07:40
You know, if we're following these rules, let's at least know who made them. You know those aren't real rules. Those are just things that get said and society sort of picked up on along the way somehow we don't even know how, and those aren't actual rules. We don't have to act tough all the time. We can share emotions, we can show people that we care about that, we care about them, and that can be in a lot of different ways. It doesn't have to go in any particular direction or meet a certain stereotype. It's just that we care and we show that we care and that builds those emotional connections. 

Bill SimpsonHost
08:12
Absolutely so. Moving on to number three, number three is practicality. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
08:17
This is where we learn to live together well, and it's where a lot of people fall down because they focus so much on those emotional connections. But you might have heard someone say I love them but I can't live with them, and that comes because of the third component of love has fallen in their life. They have an emotional connection but they don't have practicality. These are things like, as a couple, making financial decisions. 

Bill SimpsonHost
08:43
Yeah. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
08:45
Communication skills and communication is a skill. It's another thing that we have to practice and learn how to communicate with our family, friends, co-workers in a way that is effective. Things like mental health, depression, anxiety these things take a toll on us and they take a toll on our relationships, but they're treatable conditions and it's a practical matter to get the help we need to treat our mental health so that we can not only live a fuller life ourselves but stay in those relationships. These kind of practical things of learning to live together well are what keep us together. Emotion brings us together, but practicality keeps us together. 

Bill SimpsonHost
09:25
It's kind of the pragmatics, the glue that holds the relationship together, because if you can't function together, right, exactly. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
09:31
Yeah, and there are so many people that do have an emotional connection. They have ties, they have feelings for each other and have had good times, but their relationship falls apart because they just don't know how to live together. Because that's a skill that has to be developed and that's a practical skill that it's difficult for a lot of people, because you know they don't make romantic comedies about the practical guy that makes good decisions and we get caught up in the emotional side of it sometimes, even if we struggle to express that we sort of stereotype love that way. 

10:03
But practicality is how we live together well and build our lives together, regardless of what kind of relationship that is. 

Bill SimpsonHost
10:11
It's creating that balance of the love and the practicality. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
10:15
Exactly. They balance one another and if we get too far to one side or another, we either lose that emotional connection because we're just doing the stuff of life and that can happen too. We're doing the household chores, we're cooking dinner, we're doing homework with the kids, we're checking off all the lists and we forget the emotional connection, or we depend too much on the emotion and we forget we still have to live together and make this relationship work on a practical level. They're a great balance to one another. 

Bill SimpsonHost
10:42
So we're at grief, emotion and practicality. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
10:45
Practicality. Number four is acceptance, and at first glance you may think, well, that's about accepting the people in our lives and even though they have flaws, and that's absolutely what it is. But it's more about accepting ourselves and loving ourselves. Brene Brown did some great research and some great books and speeches on this. A lot of people don't know that you can only love others to the extent you love yourself. 

Bill SimpsonHost
11:14
True. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
11:15
You cannot love other people more than you love yourself. It's impossible and we live under this delusion sometimes that we can beat ourselves up, we can look down on ourselves, we can treat ourselves horribly, speak to ourselves horribly, but we can treat our family great, and it doesn't work like that. How you treat yourself, how you love yourself, is how you're going to love others, because love is not a commodity like money. If you need more money to give away, you can get a second job, you can take out a loan, you can steal money. I don't recommend that last one, but there's a lot of ways to get money. Love is different. It's organic. You can't just go out and get it to give it away. You have to grow it within yourself. And so the fourth component of love is acceptance love of ourselves, accepting ourselves so that we can be in the relationships with other people. 

Bill SimpsonHost
12:09
Yeah, I say that a lot and I do a lot of self-compassion work in the relationships with other people. Yeah, I say that a lot and I do a lot of self-compassion work in the work that I do. And it always starts, you know, I say I'm helping you to be a better version of yourself for yourself, and the relationship it starts with yourself. If you're doing it for the other person, at some point down the line there's going to be some resentment there because, oh, I did this for you. You got to start from yourself. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
12:34
It starts with yourself and we just don't have the capacity to love more than that. If you want to love your spouse, your partner, your children, more you love yourself, more you focus on who you are and loving your own life, and then it just becomes organic, it becomes natural. You don't have to work at loving the people in your life that you have feelings for that you already have a connection with. It just flows more because you have more within you to give you know it's funny, it's, you know, that radical acceptance of yourself. 

Bill SimpsonHost
13:05
And you know, I find myself, as I get older, being on video and, you know, doing things on social media. I start to notice my age. And then I start to notice, oh, look at your crooked teeth and look at those bags under your eyes. And it's like you know, man, I got these affirmations I do every morning. I love my crooked teeth, I love my bags under my eyes, Exactly so I can't. What am I going to do with it? Right? 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
13:30
 Right and again who made the rule that we have to be perfect, exactly, that we can't look just the way we look, that we can't just be who we are, we, we are like we are, we are ourselves and we are unique and that's a great thing. And somehow to think that we have to fit into some other category and look a certain way and be a certain way, that's not a real rule, that doesn't actually exist. It's just, you know, it's something we put upon ourselves and if we treat ourselves that way, eventually we're going to treat other people that way Exactly. It's going to come out because it's within us. Whatever's in us is going to come out, and that's no way to be treating people. 

14:05
That's no way to be treating us. 

Bill SimpsonHost


Dr Mark HicksGuest
14:05
There's no way to be treating us. 

Bill SimpsonHost
14:07
We're perfectly imperfect, just like everybody else, so we're just as special as everybody else. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
14:12
Exactly right, and the more we understand that, the easier it is to love the uniqueness of everyone around us. 

Bill SimpsonHost
14:19
Absolutely so. That brings us to number five. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
14:23
Number five is passion, and this is about a passion for life. And this is about a passion for life. It's about the wind in our sails, getting up in the morning and seeing what the day will bring, enjoying what we do and who we do things with, enjoying what we do for a living and enjoying our coworkers we're not going to get along with everyone perfectly, but enjoying our coworkers as much as we can, enjoying our friends, our community and certainly our family. So many times we get caught up in other things. Life is serious. That's why the third component is practicality. And life does have sorrow and heartbreak, and that's why the first component is grief. 

14:58
But let's not forget that life is also fun. At least it can be if we let it. And keeping that element of fun, remembering to make fun a priority, is what keeps passion in our life. Fun is what drives passion. That fun is what keeps us engaged in the enjoyment of life. That's the component that can get lost in a lot of relationships over time because we are focused on so many heavy things in life. It's not that we forget those. Those are components of love as well. But let's not forget that life of passion and fun and enjoyment and just the thrill ride of life of let's see where we go and what happens. 

Bill SimpsonHost
15:39
Yeah, it's like seeing my grandchildren, just the joy that they have at 18 months old and eight years old and they're just having fun, they're just living their lives. And we, we become so cynical as we get older, especially if we've had negative experiences, you know, and it just wears on us and we forget to to have that fun yeah, when we're children it comes natural, it's just. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
16:03
It's just a way of life as adults. When we do go through the hard times, we go through the grief, we we deal with serious matters, it can get lost, and so you have to have fun on purpose. You have to make it a priority, and some people don't even know what is fun to them, and that's when you just start experimenting, just do stuff, find out. 

Bill SimpsonHost
16:24
I was going to ask you what can people do to find their fun? 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
16:29
Yeah, just experiment, I mean, just go out and just speculate what do you think might be fun, and then try it and try to enjoy it. And you know, if you try it and it's really not for you, fine, don't do that anymore. There's something you enjoy, there's something in life, and a lot of it is just a mindset of enjoying the people you're with. They're going to be funny, some of them. They're going to have stories, they're going to have experiences to share and so, being in a mindset where you really let yourself enjoy the good times. 

17:00
We're going to have difficult times, but that doesn't have to take away the joy when we have joyful times. It doesn't take away the seriousness. We know that we can be happy and joyful about something and excited about something, but we haven't forgotten there's serious things in life and there's tragic things in life. The opposite can be true. Yeah, there's tragedy, there's seriousness, there's difficulty, but that doesn't mean that we forget about the fun. And so, keeping a mindset of today, I'm going to find some way to have some fun. It doesn't have to be all day, obviously but just find some way. 

Bill SimpsonHost
17:34
We may not be able to have fun all day. It makes me think of the news. The news is designed to keep us in fear, to keep us in that fear mode that life is doomed. There's so much negativity in the world and I think part of that fun is finding the other side. If you're immersing yourself in that all those serious things you see on the news, and it's not to say to put your head in the sand and avoid everything. It's just balance that out, because there is good stuff out here. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
18:03
It is, and that's why I teach the five components. It's not just one, it's all five. Do we have to deal with the heartache of life? Yes, that's why we deal with grief. Do we have to deal with the seriousness of life? Yes, that's why we deal with practicality. But we also have to practice passion and fun and enjoyment. As long as we're practicing all five, we're not putting our head in the sand, but we're still having fun along the way, despite the struggles of life. 

Bill SimpsonHost
18:30
So I'm thinking of going through your book and seeing those five. Is it in any particular order? I think of the five, six, seven stages of grief or whatever they are. It doesn't necessarily mean in that order. I guess you could pick and choose any way you want. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
18:44
I think you can pick and choose. They're in no particular order. I do think grief is a foundational element, because we are going to struggle, we are going to have difficulties, life is just going to be hard sometimes and we have to have a way back, and so I do think we have that becomes a foundational element. But no, they're not. They're not in any particular order. I think all five are equally important. All five have to be practiced. 

19:08
Some are going to be natural to some people, based on their personality, based on the way they were raised. They're going to have just the natural ability to have one or two or four of the components of love. And what happens very often is people do have a good family life growing up, they're basically healthy folks, they basically have a good relationship because they're practicing, say, three of these. But then there's something missing and they just wonder we have this emotional connection, we have a great life together, we're living life in a very practical way and doing all the good stuff and we've come back through the difficulties, but something's just missing. 

19:45
The five components of love give a way to conceptualize so that we can say this is what's missing. We're missing the fifth component. We may have four out of five and so we're doing really well, but it doesn't feel quite right yet. That's because we're missing the fifth component, or it could be any of them. We may be doing really well in every area, but we're so hard on ourselves and it's affecting our relationship, so we're missing that fourth component of acceptance. This is a way of conceptualizing. 

So when we're doing terribly and our relationships are falling apart, we can see where do we start, and usually it starts with grief, because they're usually falling apart because we're struggling to overcome our past. But if we're doing well, because we've got two or three or four going on, we have a way of looking and saying this is what we're missing. When we practice all five, then we're really hitting a place that we can have those thriving relationships. 

Bill SimpsonHost
20:38
The word that's coming up for me in thinking of those five elements, there is harmony. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
20:44
Yeah, that's a great one. They all work together, just as we were saying. It's obvious, they balance each other with emotion and practicality, but they really all balance one another. They all work together, and that's why I choose the word components. That's not necessarily a word that has to be used. It can be principles of love or aspects of love, or elements of love, it's all fine. But I choose that word components because I have this idea that they all work together, that they all fit together like pieces of a puzzle to form that beautiful life and connection and a life of love. 

And so it's not that you're doing it wrong If you're missing one. It's just that it's not fully complete and you need that last component, or those last two components, to go into your life and be able to have not just a good relationship but a thriving relationship. 

Bill SimpsonHost
21:37
And I would think that would be. There'd be an ebb and flow of that, like maybe you're doing all five and they're hitting all five cylinders, you know, and then it slips a little bit, but then you bring it back and you know, I imagine it could flow like that. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
21:52
It absolutely does, because it's a practice. It's not just about knowing this. We can know it, but it's a practice that we have to live out and we're not perfect and we are going to hit places in our life that we forget to focus on one or during the more serious times. You know, fun might not really be an option for a little while, but let's not forget to come back to it when it is an option and things of that nature. It just kind of keeps us working and practicing and gives us a framework to practice love in a tangible way. And we're never going to arrive at perfection, that's okay. 

That's part of the journey and the adventure of life and love is every day we can get a little better and every day we can look and see where we might be slipping and go with that ebb and flow. That's a perfect way of putting it because it is the flow of life. But as long as we're practicing all five, we'll do fine. There's not to be perfect, but we'll have a great relationships. 

Bill SimpsonHost
22:50
It reminds me, I'm a Tai Chi master instructor and one of the things we say in Tai Chi is we strive for perfection and we never get there. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
22:58
Yeah, exactly. 

Bill SimpsonHost
23:00
Yeah. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
23:01
And that's okay. That's part of the fourth component of acceptance, of knowing that while I love myself in order to love others, I can love myself in my own imperfection. And it doesn't mean that I don't try to get better. We can work at it, but we love the imperfections at the same time. There's the old saying there's no broken clouds. They're all beautiful, but they're all different. They're all made differently, but they're all fabulous in their own way. Beautiful in their own way, and that's how we are. We can work at getting better, but we can love who we are on that journey. 

Bill SimpsonHost
23:36
I'm thinking about your book again and the five components. I could see a couple working together with this. The five components, I could see a couple working together with this and as long as they're committed to this together, I can see them growing quite a bit. Can one use it and maybe the other to pull the other one in? Like say, a guy reads your book and maybe the wife's. Like I don't know about that, Does it still work? 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
24:02
Yeah, obviously it works better if both people are working in the same structure, but yeah, it still gives that one person a structure and a framework to even bring things up, To be able to say you know, maybe we should try to have some more fun together. You don't have to go through all the components, you have them in your mind. You don't have to explain them all to your partner if they're not ready to hear that or don't want to read the book. But you can say you know, we've not had a lot of fun lately. Things have been really serious. Let's just try to have some fun. You know, in your mind this is the fifth component of love. This is maybe the. Sometimes we aren't very practical. We're kind of falling down on some of the ways we live together. Maybe we can work on that some. 

24:51
And it's just a way of communication, even if it's not one that your partner fully understands. Obviously, if they have the same five components of love in their mind, it's easier. I knew one lady that read the book and she wasn't sure that her husband would want to read it and she didn't want to kind of force it on him. So she read the book and then she just laid it out in the living room table hoping he would pick it up. 

Bill SimpsonHost
25:14
Yeah, and part of why I asked that question is when I work with men in relationship. You know, sometimes I work with the couple, yet it's me working with the man, and a lot of times when the man starts to shift, or either one person starts to shift, the other person picks up on it, kind of organically. You know that. Well, something's different here and you know, sometimes all it takes is that one person. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
25:39
Yeah, when you make positive changes, you're going to affect the people around you in a positive way. And so, yes, you can absolutely make an impact by practicing these five components yourself, even if the people around you aren't, and you're going to go to work and do the same thing. Everybody at work isn't going to understand the language you're using. You know you can still work on those kinds of relationships. That is different from family, but still work on those work relationships to make sure things are flowing at work better in those connections as well. Everyone can use these five components. 

25:44
And so, yes, you can absolutely make an impact by practicing these five components yourself, even if the people around you aren't, and you're going to go to work and do the same thing. Everybody at work isn't going to understand the language you're using. You know you can still work on those kinds of relationships. That is different from family, but still work on those work relationships to make sure things are flowing at work better in those connections as well. Everyone can use these five components. 

Bill SimpsonHost
26:10
You can use it all across the board here. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
26:12
So absolutely. 

Bill SimpsonHost
26:13
Love is universal. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
26:15
It absolutely is. And the components of love, these elements of love, are the same, whether it is family or friend or community or career. It's a different intensity. Obviously we're not going to love our co-workers the same way we love our spouse or our children. That's okay. It doesn't have to be the same, but the principles are the same, the components are the same in building these relationships, and so even loving humanity, loving the planet, is still the same principles that we follow, living a life of love. 

Bill SimpsonHost
Absolutely Well, Mark. I really appreciate you taking the time today. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap things up today? 


Dr Mark HicksGuest
26:55
Well, if anyone's interested, please go to my website. It's MarkAHickscom. It's M-A-R-K. My middle initial is A-H-I-C-K-S. Markahickscom. It's m-a-r-k. My middle initial is a h-i-c-k-s mark a hickscom. You can find easy links to my books that are on amazon. You can find my podcast, my youtube, social media and there's a contact page. I speak on this topic anywhere people would like to have me, so if you'd like to have me for an event, there's a contact page. I also do coaching, so you can contact me through my website. Go to markahickscom and find out all that I'm doing. 

Bill SimpsonHost
27:27
All right, and I'll have those contact links in the show notes as well, so it's easy for people to find you. Well, mark, thanks so much. I love the five components and I appreciate you being on this path to love and being on the show and reaching out. I wish you much success with your book and all that you're doing, and thanks again for being on the show. 

Dr Mark HicksGuest
27:50
Thank you, my pleasure. Thank you so much. 

Bill SimpsonHost
27:52
And that will bring an end to another episode of the Men on the Path to Love podcast. Thank you so much for listening and thanks again to my guest, dr Mark Hicks, helping us learn more about love and living the life you love. You will find the links to Mark's contact information, his book and his podcast in the show notes Now coming up. On the next episode of the Men on the Path to Love podcast, I will be sharing some common myths about relationships that my clients have said to me over the years and what reality and research says to debunk these myths. 

28:31
Please join me for the Mythbusters Understanding the Realities of Relationships episode and if you have a relationship issue or topic you would like for me to focus on, please let me know. You can contact me through my website, menonthepathtolovecom. You'll see on my website that I offer a free coaching session on how to communicate better in relationship, as well as a free cheat sheet 5 Ways to Communicate Better in Relationship. Check it out. It's at my website, menonthepathtolovecom, and if you find this podcast useful, please let people know about it. Yeah, tell all your folks, man, post it on your social media and let's make the world a better place. Go ahead, share the link and share the love and until next time, keep your heart open and stay on the path to love.