I know. It's SO obvious that today's Gratitude Attitude is love. But I can't help it!
I did reflect on love this morning and I AM grateful for the many different kinds of love that exist. All the different loves enrich our lives (if we allow them to) and help mold us into people who have capacity for great love.
So many different types of love hit me upon reflection this morning.
The love of a parent. 14 years ago our second child was born on this day, she is our forever valentine! And that love has only grown over the 14 years of her life. It's a fierce love, a soft love, a concerned love, and even a love that has a healthy fear within it. (Btw, I have that same kind of love for our firstborn as well.)
The love of a spouse. It's a different love now than it was 19 years ago. The love of a spouse is more choice based than feeling based. (Sputter and deny all you want but then think. Think carefully. I'm right aren't I?) The love within a marriage is one that over time gets refined and tested and what emerges is a deeper love (hopefully) than either one could have imagined when the "I do" was uttered.
The love of a sibling. I love my brothers and sister-in-loves in ways I truly don't love anyone else. Sometimes the love I have for them looks a lot, feels a lot, like the love I have for my kids. I feel fiercely protective of my siblings (by birth and by marriage) and I love them with a depth I cannot put into words.
The love of a child for their parent. I'm almost 40 and I love my parents more with each passing year. I still need my Mommy from time to time and I still call my Dad - Daddy! Our relationship has morphed and changed with time and me being married myself and becoming a parent myself. I'm at the stage of life where I have friends that are beginning to lose their parents and it clenches my heart with grief, I love my parents so much I cannot imagine them not present.
The love of friendship. I am incredibly blessed, honored, to have friends who love me as I am. Trust people, it ain't pretty in my life. But I have friends who patiently walk the road of life with me and love me in such generous and beautiful ways. Someday I will be able to be a rock star friend like the ones I have in my life.
Love in all it's various forms is humbling. At least it is for me. I am humbled that my husband still chooses to love me even though I've snapped at him 15 times that day (no seriously, I told you my life wasn't that pretty), I'm humbled that my redheads still choose to love me even though I have lost it with them a "time or two" (however, perhaps they still love me because I have also learned how to apologize when the fault is mine to own), I'm humbled that I have friends who love me even though I haven't returned their text/phone call/email in 2 months, I'm humbled that my sibs love me in the ways they do, and I'm humbled that my parents have loved me through my teen years *grin* and beyond.
Yes, it's obvious that today I chose to highlight love for my Gratitude Attitude but I think perhaps I needed to reflect on it. Perhaps you do to?
*Oh and to correct a common misconception about love...love means saying you are sorry when it's right and appropriate, it isn't defined by never having to say you're sorry like the movie would have you believe. If you love, truly, you will own when you are at fault.
*Check out what other thoughts I have had about love in the past couple of years by clicking here and here.
I did reflect on love this morning and I AM grateful for the many different kinds of love that exist. All the different loves enrich our lives (if we allow them to) and help mold us into people who have capacity for great love.
So many different types of love hit me upon reflection this morning.
The love of a parent. 14 years ago our second child was born on this day, she is our forever valentine! And that love has only grown over the 14 years of her life. It's a fierce love, a soft love, a concerned love, and even a love that has a healthy fear within it. (Btw, I have that same kind of love for our firstborn as well.)
The love of a spouse. It's a different love now than it was 19 years ago. The love of a spouse is more choice based than feeling based. (Sputter and deny all you want but then think. Think carefully. I'm right aren't I?) The love within a marriage is one that over time gets refined and tested and what emerges is a deeper love (hopefully) than either one could have imagined when the "I do" was uttered.
The love of a sibling. I love my brothers and sister-in-loves in ways I truly don't love anyone else. Sometimes the love I have for them looks a lot, feels a lot, like the love I have for my kids. I feel fiercely protective of my siblings (by birth and by marriage) and I love them with a depth I cannot put into words.
The love of a child for their parent. I'm almost 40 and I love my parents more with each passing year. I still need my Mommy from time to time and I still call my Dad - Daddy! Our relationship has morphed and changed with time and me being married myself and becoming a parent myself. I'm at the stage of life where I have friends that are beginning to lose their parents and it clenches my heart with grief, I love my parents so much I cannot imagine them not present.
The love of friendship. I am incredibly blessed, honored, to have friends who love me as I am. Trust people, it ain't pretty in my life. But I have friends who patiently walk the road of life with me and love me in such generous and beautiful ways. Someday I will be able to be a rock star friend like the ones I have in my life.
Love in all it's various forms is humbling. At least it is for me. I am humbled that my husband still chooses to love me even though I've snapped at him 15 times that day (no seriously, I told you my life wasn't that pretty), I'm humbled that my redheads still choose to love me even though I have lost it with them a "time or two" (however, perhaps they still love me because I have also learned how to apologize when the fault is mine to own), I'm humbled that I have friends who love me even though I haven't returned their text/phone call/email in 2 months, I'm humbled that my sibs love me in the ways they do, and I'm humbled that my parents have loved me through my teen years *grin* and beyond.
Yes, it's obvious that today I chose to highlight love for my Gratitude Attitude but I think perhaps I needed to reflect on it. Perhaps you do to?
*Oh and to correct a common misconception about love...love means saying you are sorry when it's right and appropriate, it isn't defined by never having to say you're sorry like the movie would have you believe. If you love, truly, you will own when you are at fault.
*Check out what other thoughts I have had about love in the past couple of years by clicking here and here.
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