Saying I love you

 

Have you ever thought about how hard it is to say I love you? We live in a society where sleeping with different people from time to time has become the norm, but saying I love you to your friend almost never happens. Is that not messed up?  This past September I lost a dear friend to her two year battle with breast cancer. She was only 6 weeks away from her 40th Birthday. She left behind a loving husband and three adorable kids ages 2 to almost 7. The thing she left behind was the ability to say I love you. Anyone who truly knew her will always remember that Kelli would always say I love you instead of just saying good-bye. What an awesome way to be remembered.

  After her death I became more aware of how little I said those words to my friends...and how hard it was. What is the deal? I think the word love is automatically associated with an intimate kind of love affair. But reality is, it's not. It is an emotion, a feeling of fondness for someone. Webster's definition of love defines love as....

a (1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties <maternal love for a child> (2): attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests <love for his old schoolmates>

This leaves the door open to anyone, not just someone you are in an intimate relationship with or just family. I think also, we are afraid of rejection. You remember that kind of rejection when you told that special someone you loved them, but didn't get the response you had hoped for. I think those memories make such an impact that we become afraid to use those words again. There are people in my life who have made such an impact on who I am today, and I love them for that. If something were to happen to them I would be affected greatly, yet I have never told them. I know we all have "best friends" whom we care about greatly and love, but again, we don't tell them. I do have a friend that I now say I love you to. And wouldn't you know it, she now tells me. What a great thing to pass on. Love is not something to keep to yourself. Everyone needs to love and to be loved.

For those of you who have friends of the opposite sex, and most of us do, whom you would say you "love", I think it's OK to say so. You need to approach this a little more conservatively by maybe preceding I love you with "I admire you or you are a dear friend", but I wouldn't stray away from saying the words all together. This world has made LOVE a word appropriate for couples only. Let's be realistic folks. If we took time to tell each other how much we loved each other, there would be less depression, loneliness, suicide, heartache, regrets, and the list goes on and on. Moral of this story...Get out of your comfort zone and tell someone sincerely...You love them!