By Lori Suzanne Holetz
A few months ago, whilst in the middle of a health issue and feeling very stressed with all the intensive medical rigmarole; it became difficult to feel or focus on the notion of love. A panel of expert physicians were struggling to pin down a diagnosis and it was dragging on and on. The unknowing was literally the worst of it. After months and months of the wild rollercoaster ride, I felt drained and wiped out, not much in the way of the feelings of love left. Yet, it was the very it medicine I needed the most. One day, my daughter said “Mom, not that you haven’t been leading the charge, but don’t you think it is time for YOU to decide what is happening for you?!?” She could not have been more correct. And with that, I shifted my focus; and everything else began to shift for the better as well.
Within the next few days, while at my workplace, a place centered and focused on the heart, one of the lovely women there came to me and said, “I just want you to know, you are loved!”. It was that simple, as heart-centered love is. I don’t remember anyone in my life, let alone someone I had just recently met, saying such a simply profound thing to me. I do not remember my folks ever telling me they loved me, but that was another time long ago, when social norms were quite reserved. I’ve no idea why this upbringing made it so difficult so express one’s love, but it did, as if the words literally got stuck in the throat; the heart center so guarded as to never be wounded if the words were not uttered. It was a ridiculous notion, that shaded my entire life, and made the aspect of true love all the more elusive. I spent most of my teens and twenties in the pursuit of finding some small bit of love that might be my own. It certainly did not make for easy passage through these years, and only lead to ideas of loss of self-worth, I simply was not good enough to be loved I truly believed. Today, not a day goes by that an authentic “I love you” is not spoken in my family and every phone conversation with my kids ends with a quick by most sincere “Love you!”
We know the world is in a dire state now, the news full of hatred, aggression, apathy and narcissism. I’m not sure how we as a global community have arrived at such a sad state of affairs, but it is important now more than ever to be love in everything we think, do and say. Words have the tremendous power to cast “spells” and can change everything (that’s why they call it spelling!). Our words and how we choose to use them holds an astonishing healing power, and so easy and free… it costs nothing to make someone feel better with a little dose of “You are loved!”. You hold the power to change everything, and make someone’s life and how they might be thinking about and defining themselves, just a wee bit sweeter by simply sharing your true caring. It changed mine!
