*Beginning in 2010, I started writing a bi-weekly column, “From Richard’s Oft Cluttered Desk” which appears every other Wednesday.

It is over. Finished. Complete. 2010. See you … well … never again.

Ah yes, another year in review. As I sit here typing this, I have no idea what the focus will be. In the various blogs I follow and newsletters I subscribe to, there are countless stories about top (insert your favorite number here) events and moments to remember from 2010. Some of them are quite interesting. It is interesting to me how much we can forget over the course of 365 fun-filled days.

And that’s what life is. No matter the challenges and for me there were plenty in 2010, but I have always tried to experience it and enjoy the journey. Ten years ago a friend of mine killed himself. It was a rough time for all of us who were his classmates and as we were only 16-years-old, we struggled. It was emotional and trying. But we were lucky. We made it though. And I personally made it through. It wasn’t always easy but life is never easy.

I don’t remember if it was my junior or senior year, but I was leaving tennis in the spring and I was driving home–westward–towards the sun. And it seemed like the perfect day. I distinctly remember pulling up to a stop-sign and smiling. It was probably my first honest smile in a year or more. And that’s how I feel about 2010.

My biggest lesson from 2010 is the importance of love. Never has a lesson been so clear to me, but it began in late fall when I watched as two guys, one gay, one straight, set the World Record for longest continuous kiss. One of the guys in his “post-kiss” speech said two words that have become my lesson: Advocate Love. From there I had a much needed meeting with my family and for the first time in my life, I stood up for myself.

There is no greater feeling in the world than love and unconditional acceptance. As we enter the second decade of the 21st Century, I believe love must be our focus. It is universal. Each and every human being knows what it feels like. Consequently, every human being knows what pain feels like as well, but love is the one pure vaccine for pain. For hate. For intolerance. For nonacceptance.

As the clock nears a new year, a new decade and quite simply, a new day, make a pledge to yourself to love. To love deeply and freely. To embrace each and every hill and valley in your life for what it is: life. Be you. And be proud. Go running. Go swimming. Write the worst novel ever written. Go on dates. Break-up. Get married. Have kids. Send your kids off to college. Buy a house. Sell your car. Break bread. And break wind.

For in the end, the final tally of any day, of any life is simple; Do you love and are you loved?

So I say again, Advocate Love.