Loneliness. Feeling unloved.
These are feelings that a lot of people struggle with. And we aren't so open with it. People feel lonely and unloved and unappreciated and it's not ok. I've struggled with it quite a bit but I look around me and I see people who love me and care about me. They love me for me and I don't feel so lonely. Sometimes its hard to let people love on me. It's hard for me to ask for help and accept it. But we all need human contact and companionship. We need people. We need conversations to happen. I feel like we all should be a little bit more open about feeling lonely because than we will know we aren't the only ones in the world that feel that way. We aren't alone in our loneliness.
We aren't meant to be alone. We are created to be in relationships with people. We are meant to be in community. One of my favorite movies is Into the Wild. At the end of the movie he realizes that in order to be truly happy we have to share it. "Happiness only real when shared." We are to share with other people our happiness, our love, our passions, our hurts, our needs, and our lives. It makes life so much better when we do. Sometimes, a person simply needs to be heard, to be known and appreciated despite failures and imperfections, and to be loved through their mess.
All we need to do is look around and we'll see people just like us going through similar things. Feeling the same things that we feel and maybe we can get by with a little help from our friends. Maybe we all should take a second to slow down and listen to what our friends are asking and sharing and what they need too. In order to receive love you have to be willing to give it. Iris Murdoch said "We can only learn to love by loving." You have to be willing to love people. You also have to be willing to accept love back which can be really hard but really rewarding.
So pause, look around, really see people, really listen and really love and be open to love.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Words
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." -Mother Teresa
Words mean a lot to me. I take things to heart and so words of encouragement and letters and emails and even text messages mean so much if they make me smile or laugh or sometimes even cry. They make me know that I am loved and cared for by someone. Saying a kind word to someone is so easy to do and yet we don't do it enough. Instead we tear people down, we cuss and we make fun of people and we are sarcastic. We say things to get a laugh, but on someone else's expense. I'm guilty of all of these but I'm gonna try and stop. I'm gonna try and only encourage people because I know how it much it means to me when someone takes the time to say I love you or I'm thankful for you or I miss you. It's nice to know that we are loved, cared for, and missed sometimes. It's nice to know that you aren't alone in this world.
Which we're not. We aren't alone in this world. We aren't alone in anything. We always have God but we also have friends and family and other people that we may not know but they have a story. They have wants and needs and they want to be loved as well. I think that's a pretty universal feeling to want, to love and be loved, to know someone and be known by someone. You want to be able to affect someone in a positive way. You want to be remembered once you are gone.
I've been thinking about that recently. What would people do if I was gone? Would it matter to anyone? Would anyone miss me because sometimes it feels like I wouldn't be missed. Do I really play that big of a role in this world? Do I really matter? Have I made an affect on anyone? What would people remember me for? Would I be remembered as someone who was loved and loved others? I hope so. I hope I would be remembered as someone who loves God with everything and that I tried to love like God loves. I hope I've had an affect on people. I hope I've been able to encourage people with my words. Because words mean a lot to me.
And you must remember that YOU MATTER VERY MUCH
Words mean a lot to me. I take things to heart and so words of encouragement and letters and emails and even text messages mean so much if they make me smile or laugh or sometimes even cry. They make me know that I am loved and cared for by someone. Saying a kind word to someone is so easy to do and yet we don't do it enough. Instead we tear people down, we cuss and we make fun of people and we are sarcastic. We say things to get a laugh, but on someone else's expense. I'm guilty of all of these but I'm gonna try and stop. I'm gonna try and only encourage people because I know how it much it means to me when someone takes the time to say I love you or I'm thankful for you or I miss you. It's nice to know that we are loved, cared for, and missed sometimes. It's nice to know that you aren't alone in this world.
Which we're not. We aren't alone in this world. We aren't alone in anything. We always have God but we also have friends and family and other people that we may not know but they have a story. They have wants and needs and they want to be loved as well. I think that's a pretty universal feeling to want, to love and be loved, to know someone and be known by someone. You want to be able to affect someone in a positive way. You want to be remembered once you are gone.
I've been thinking about that recently. What would people do if I was gone? Would it matter to anyone? Would anyone miss me because sometimes it feels like I wouldn't be missed. Do I really play that big of a role in this world? Do I really matter? Have I made an affect on anyone? What would people remember me for? Would I be remembered as someone who was loved and loved others? I hope so. I hope I would be remembered as someone who loves God with everything and that I tried to love like God loves. I hope I've had an affect on people. I hope I've been able to encourage people with my words. Because words mean a lot to me.
And you must remember that YOU MATTER VERY MUCH
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