You may think I spend an awful lot of time on the concept of “love.” I’ll admit, I [heart] LOVE and am one of those sappy types who really and truly believes that love conquers all and yes, love IS the answer. It really is the answer. Sometimes that means loving yourself; sometimes that means loving another; sometimes it means indirectly loving others by loving a cause or being passionate about something you’re good at, which, in the end makes the world a better place for having your contribution in it. Sometimes love is easy. Simple and uncomplicated and easy and obvious. More often than not, however (at least in my personal existence), love is often sloppy, awkward and clumsy.
I’m learning more and more that pure love starts at our very core with loving ourselves. Once we are full-up, love just naturally spews out to those around us and really is offered up with very little effort. It’s when we’re not full-up that the pureness of love can be a bit diluted. That doesn’t mean it’s not still good or that we shouldn’t make an attempt to share it, but the thing is, when love is given without there being a surplus (meaning you had to withdraw from your account—the account which should have a surplus in it because you have loved yourself entirely first, so there wasn’t already “extra” that was burning a hole in your pocket), then you are left with a need for your funds to be replenished, and, unfortunately, this usually means than while we think we’re giving freely, the fact remains we are giving but expecting something in return—large or small. It’s just natural. But when you reach a place where love is pure and you have absolutely no need or expectation of any kind of reciprocation, the freedom that exists there is pure bliss and naturally adds to the surplus. Am I making any sense? It means that when you are so full that love just spurts out of you here and there, there is no fear of what someone’s reaction might be to your love (that stops us often, doesn’t it?) because you have no need of their approval. You can feel completely at peace because you know sharing love can never be the “inappropriate” or “weird” or whatever thing to do. How many times have you resented or been offended by someone sharing pure love with you? I’m guessing not too often, if ever. And if you have by some remarkable chance not appreciated it, I would venture to say it’s an invitation to look internally as to why.
This brings me to say that we should never hold back. I experienced one of those events this week that you’ve heard about a thousand times: “Never refrain from telling someone you love them, because you never know when it may be the last time.” Are you rolling your eyes? We may all roll our eyes until it really happens to us. Luckily for me, “it” turned out not to be the last time (this time), and I was given another chance to share the love that’s in my heart for this person, so I did--as quickly as I could.
Trying to show those you love how much you love them will never be perfect. You will always wonder what you could have done better or if you should have tried harder. Love is messy. But while you’ve heard these messages a thousand times, they bear repeating. Love yourself. Love freely. Love yourself. The only time you may regret telling someone you love them is if, in fact, you don’t. If your love is honest, the only regret you may have is having not said anything at all.
