I’ve always viewed February as the month of love. Whether it’s about loving oneself, a spouse, partner, parent, child or pet, being mindful of the importance of love is a vital life force. Many of us have easily gotten lost in the vortex of life and forget to honor ourselves and our loved ones.
One way to honor ourselves and our loved ones is to do some writing. Whether it’s in a journal or in a letter form. It’s a win-win situation. A letter is healing for the writer and the recipient. While going through some old computer files, I stumbled upon this letter written for myself a number of years ago. I reminisced about the power of love.
A Letter to Self
Dear Self:
When I turned sixteen, our family physician handed me a copy of Love and Will written by humanist psychologist Rollo May. When I cracked this book open for the first time, I had no idea what the author was talking about. Chances are I was too young to understand, so I filed it on my bookshelf and forgot about it until many years later when engulfed with my doctoral research. I felt blessed to rediscover this gem.
May emphasizes how we all yearn to have a love relationship greater than ourselves, and most often to overcome loneliness. Sometimes, these relationships are long-lived, like in the case of my uncle who passed away after a 64-year marriage. Other times, the relationship is short-lived. As many believe, people come into our life for a reason. In all cases, love and eros are driving forces, and as Groucho Marx said, “Behind every successful man is a woman.”
Even though my husband is now retired, he did have a successful working life and of course I like to take a significant amount of credit for that, but I would also like to take credit for using my intuition when I felt real love entering my life. Many people do not believe in love at first sight, but as someone who experienced it nearly fifty years ago, I can tell you it’s definitely possible.
On the summer of my eighteenth birthday, my parents put me on a plane from New York and sent me to Toronto, Canada to work on their friends’ farm. After being introduced to the manager, who happened to be my mother’s friends’ son, (who is now my husband) our eyes met, and I felt a magnetic pull to another human being…
