WHEN... When You're NOT So Lovable...

Linking up with the Tuesday at Ten Writing group for the week of Feb 9-15... The writing prompt... WHEN

Have you gotten to the age yet where you look back at yourself in your younger days & wonder, "Why did anyone love me? I was not very lovable back then!" Honestly, there were times when I tried not to be lovable. I wanted to distance myself from others and feed the voice inside that said I was unworthy of love.

Part of youth and part of maturing involves making a lot of mistakes... some by omission and some by co-mission. While we are making those mistakes and poor choices, we are watching others around us make their own. The trick is to
learn from the mistakes and not continue to repeat them... turning them into a pattern of behavior. 

I look back at my late teens and early 20's and often shudder at some of the choices I made... at the way I treated some people... at the disrespect & hatred I showed toward some of the people who loved me the most. And then, I look back upon my mid to late 20's - thinking that I certainly had matured by that time - but being honest... I was much the same. 

And beyond reason, through all of those times, I had a core group of people who covered me with love. Some were family. Some were friends. And, what surprised me then, but no longer seems odd at all, is that some of the ones who loved me the best, I considered as acquaintances -- friends of my parents, teachers from my childhood, elementary Sunday School teachers, etc. Why would these people act like they loved me & show me love - when I was not behaving in a very lovable manner. But, as Deb Caletti says in the following quote:

"That’s what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you’re not so lovable." ~ Deb Caletti

And, now... as a no-longer-young-person. I can loudly say... I want to be one of those people. I want to love people who aren't so lovable. I want to love people who have polar opposite views than I do. I want to love people who choose to live a different life styles and those who embrace different political views. I want to love people of all ages - not just my peers. I want to love regardless of the rewards or challenges. Many of those I love will never reciprocate my actions of love or support. But, I want to do what people do who love!

Why? Because... that's what LOVE does... it's given freely, without condition. And, it's perhaps the strongest positive force in the universe. 

I want to be one of those people!!