Who do you love?

Sometimes I am surprised by the reaction of people to minor criticism, or just to not having everything go exactly their way. I wonder at these times what might be going on inside to amplify these little inconveniences in life to the point where they effect someone's mood and outlook so dramatically. It seems to me that a lot of these instances are caused when the trigger is hitting close to something inside that person that they aren't happy with, some part of themselves that they don't really like too much.

It can sometimes be hard to love someone that you know REALLY well. They say, "absense makes the heart grow fonder". If so, familiarity must breed contempt. Who do you know better than yourself? How hard is it to live with the warts that we all know we have? I have been lucky enough to be fairly comfortable in my own skin, even though I've done a lot that I'm not proud of and a few things that I'm ashamed of. When you're not happy with yourself, it is much easier to be short or unkind to others. It seems like the bad things we do start us on a visciuos cycle of self-recrimination and more bad behaviour.

I'm going to try to love myself a little more...to give myself a break on some of things that I'm not too proud of and to pat myself on the back for some of the good things that I've done. I'll also try to look for good in others and point it out to them so that they can feel a little better about themselves. I really believe that if we could just learn to love ourselves a little more, we'd all be a hell of a lot better to each other.

I believe that God lies within all of us. Even if there's a lot inside me that I'm not comfortable looking at, God is also in there somewhere and there's certainly plenty worth loving too. Funny how people seem to know when your happy with yourself and they seem to gravitate to you. Looks like a no-lose bargain. I'll spend a little time every day telling myself that I'm not that bad a guy after all - I hope you do the same.