Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Love you.

So many of life's biggest challenges and mysteries revolve around love. When are you truly in love?... Is love ever enough?... who should you love?... Do you really know what love is?... this list could go on and on and on. People make careers answering and asking these very questions and still it seems no one ever has a direct answer to any of them.
Growing up I was always told "Until you love yourself you can't truly love anyone else" and I always took it lightly. I actually didn't believe it at first because I spent a large majority of my life not liking myself and still felt there were plenty of people in my life I loved. But now after watching my friends get their hearts broken, mended and broken again... after learning how it feels to actually love myself and to see the changes it's made in my life and my relationships... it makes perfect sense.
You always hear stories of the "perfect" relationship ending abruptly. One person cheats or all of a sudden doesn't love the other. But when you look a little closer often times you'll find that at least one of those people (if not both) still needed to find love for themselves. Often times when people get married or enter long term relationships one or both of them loses themselves. Their world begins and ends with that other person and they forget about what they want, what they need... they forget about their worth. And when you don't require love from yourself how can you ever require it from someone else? And how will that person know how to treat you?? By how you treat yourself. If you are willing to settle for little or nothing from yourself then why should you require anymore from them?
That's where self love comes into play. I've found that when both people in a relationship feel whole and happy by themselves they are even better when they are together. But when one or both of those people are missing something within themselves and they can't find it with the person they are with they will keep looking until they do. And often times they eventually discover that no one else can give it to them. Just like in The Wizard of Oz what you are searching for you've had with you all along. And unfortunately most people discover this after they've broken hearts and had their heart broken time and time again.
It seems to me that people waste so much time looking for love, looking for someone to complete them when what they should be doing is looking inside themselves. And once they discover they don't need anyone else to complete them or to make them happy that's when everything else they wanted comes. And no matter what happens from that point on you'll always have someone who loves you... YOU.

3 comments:

  1. It is absolutely incredible to me that you grew up so smart. This is a very very well written passage and I'm proud of you for writing it. You are so right in that you have to know and love yourself before you can love anyone else wholly. I believe that because I've experienced the difference. Good one. Now you should think about doing the one I suggested on the phone. HE HE HE

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  2. You need to get a column on what used to be a newspaper and get paid for the thought of the day.... Love ya Kiddo...

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  3. Wonderfully written Elaine. The pressure people and society put on someone who is sinlge can be overwelming. It is almost as if you are not with someone that something has to be wrong with you. I went many years fighting that stigma and sometime questioning it myself. And lucky for me my dream girl finally came true!!! (of course I wish it had been ten years earlier :) )

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