Recently I have been reading a blog composed by a friend of a friend. This woman lives on the west coast, and while I don't know her at all I find her blog to be entertaining, and at times, thought provoking. This morning I read the following quote from a post on her blog:
"I try to tell the people I love, how much I love them and that they can depend on me, through words and actions as much as I can. If I love you - why should it be a secret? What if I was killed tomorrow? What's the point of keeping these feelings within me? Why not articulate what I am feeling? Why not tell the person with whom I am talking that I miss them? Or that I love them? Or the gratitude I feel for having met them or the joy they bring to my life? I like knowing that there will be no question by anyone in my life about how I feel about them. There is enough uncertainty our lives - isn't there? Why not express these feelings? Why guard them? Why keep them so close? Why assume that the other knows so you don't have to say it? Why not just say it aloud in all of its glory? When I hear "I love you" from a friend, I believe them and it means something each time they say it to me."
At the risk of sounding redundant, I love this. It perfectly encapsulates how I feel on this issue. When I was growing up, my parents did not say "I love you" that much, though I'm not really sure why because I don't remember ever doubting that they loved me. In turn, that has made me somewhat guarded about these words, and I used to literally not be able to say them emphatically and directly to people. I had all sorts of altered variations: "luv ya," "love you", "I heart you," but I never actually looked loved ones in the eye and said, "I love you." Nonetheless, with age comes maturity and a respect for those in my life whom I truly love, and what a exceptional blessing it is to have people with whom I want to share that feeling. Ironically though, it is much easier still for me to tell my select friends "I love you" than it is my parents. This is something I will be fully cognizant of should I decide to have my own children, because it is my opinion that these words are ones that can never be over-used.
