Love and The Great Divide

​Love and The Great Divide
So I have been thinking: am I one of the lonely few people who tells their family members, children, co-workers and friends, that I love them frequently? For example, during our “Drops in The Bucket” time in our leadership team meetings, I tell my peers with whom I have bonded that I love them. And getting off the phone with my siblings, parents and grandparents, I tell them I love them. With my friends, both old and new, I tell them I love them. Obtaining a reciprocated response is not the point or goal; simple recognition of the love I have for that person is. I think to love and to be in love are different but the same. Its one of those concepts where I really believe that I prefer friendship love to romantic love at times, because people “in love” tend to fall out of it. I just want the love. I want to feel free about professing my love for the individuals in my life who make my life worth living: my friend who travels and strives to break generational labels placed upon her, my friend who is finally seeing some flickers of light at the end of the tunnel in her quest to obtain her God-ordained greatness, my friend who truly is a superman in his own right, and my friend whom I’ve loved since I can remember who I frequently have to remind to be safe. I love my family and I love my friends and the grace that my God sees fit to extend to me daily. My father who has an unusual amount of intellect married with humor, and my mother whose glare you can feel through walls, to my grandmother who everyone refers to as the nice lady to my grandfather who has this James Earl Jones-esq essence and says much while saying little- all of these people give me life. My uncle who knows a little bit about everything related to conspiracies yet really is a nice guy.  My siblings who are individually awesome and creative and bad ass who will swoop down with great vengeance if I needed them to, are some of the greatest and kindest people ever to breathe and walk this earth. My daughter’s father who entertains frequent bouts of fuckery but sometimes has great regard for my health and safety has even taught me lessons that contributed to my feelings of worth. My child whose strength and confidence and extraordinary humor is an individual like one I never met and never knew I could create, let alone parent- is my lifeline currently to my higher source. I have a friend who always reappears when I need her, one who sends her love from Phoenix, and many others who have really helped shaped me and achieve my goals. How could I not say that I love them? All too often this world reminds us of how unimportant, isolated, weird and strange---I mean really!!! Fill in the blank. We are really conditioned to look to what we are not before looking to what we are. The people in my life truly transform me with every single interaction and I believe they need to be rewarded by being loved and accepted in the same manner they have loved and accepted me. I know that it can be awkward when someone who you have no romantic interest in, says I love you. I don’t want people to feel awkward, I want them to feel loved. This is fulfilling for me and spreads love in an ever increasingly divided world. I need to be able to profess my love for people. I wanted to write this because we have so many misconceptions about love and who is allowed to love and what it means. I think love includes- let’s start this shift in language when we talk about love- love includes acceptance and reminding people that they are loved, simply because they exist. Feeling the freedom to say it also means that you are reaching a point of self-awareness and actualization where someone else’s opinion is mattering less and less. This being the case, because I know that I am loved simply because I exist, and because of the amount of wonderful people in my life reinforce it by being present, I am going to tell whoever reading this, that I love you. And I mean it. Because chances are, if we met, I would love you, simply because you exist.