“Be weird. Be random. Be who you are. Because you never know who would love the person you hide.”

C. S. Lewis

If we decide, just for today, to turn to a new belief that there is the possibility of finding just ONE person “who would love the person [we] hide”, I imagine we would become…

So curious

So hopeful

So excited

So energized…

That we would run right out to start looking for this “one” that could somehow love everything about us…

who would even love the quirky parts, the damaged parts, the shameful parts…all the parts of us that we seek to shove into the dark corners.

I also am imagining that we might just find ourselves seeking this “one”

Not just today…

But as each new day arrives.

We might find ourselves establishing a habit…

Maybe even an addiction….

Because we so hunger for love

And acceptance

Just as we are in this moment.

But wait just a minute or so.

Before I go running out that door

Looking all around…?

Each time, I will set an intention to Pause, to acknowledge that I MYSELF must be the FIRST ONE to love “the person I hide”.

I promise not to say to myself,

“I love you EVEN THOUGH

You look like this

Act like that

Said this

Thought that.”

No I say,

“I love you as you present yourself now.

Bring all your looks, your acts, your speech, your thoughts.

Just lay them here.

And after we thank them for what we can learn,

We leave them behind…

To start again

Unencumbered.

Free.

And no matter what…I will STILL LOVE YOU.”

For every time I can accept some neglected part of myself…

My world brightens

My power grows

And I can see so much more love out beyond my own heart.

I can see possibilities.

Pausing first “to love the person I hide” is the key…

To finding all that I need.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look within.

Cherish yourselves first, my friends.

Be deeply grateful for ALL that you are…

Because you ARE that “one”….

The “one” always so near

But yet so close it was hard to see.

Yes, this beautiful “one” must be found within us…

First.

Before any other searching begins,

Hard as that may be at times.

But as we learn to truly see and accept more and more of our “inner one”…?

All else will fall gently into place.

And we will find ourselves transforming into that “one”…who loves all that others hide.

We become the answers…

For each other.