Love is...

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One of the things I'm learning lately is all the things love is not...

Love is not codependence.

Love is not an exchange of displays of affection.

Love is not a competition.

Love is not a caretaker-victim relationship.

Love is not just a feeling.

Love is not infatuation.

Love is not belonging to someone.

Love is not changing myself for someone.

Love is not making myself smaller for someone.

Love is not wondering what I can do to make someone else feel a certain way about me.

Love is not desperately clinging to someone because I'm afraid to be alone.

Love is not making someone the center of my universe.

Love is not losing myself in someone else.

Love is not letting another person carry me.

Love is not choosing someone else over God.


As I begin to untangle codependence and love, I'm just barely starting to get an idea of what love really is...

 Love is knowing who I am and what I want.

Love is sharing pieces of my heart with people who are able to respect and appreciate them.

Love is walking my own path and looking around to see who else is on that path.

Love is reaching out to those on my path and taking their hands, letting them know I'm here and I care.

Love is seeing people for who they are, and letting them be exactly that.

Love is seeing the good and the potential in others and gently encouraging them to keep focusing on those things.

Love is being equal to those whose hands I hold.

Love is listening and allowing people to have their own journeys.

Love is appreciating the journeys others have been on, without devaluing my own journey.

Love is anchoring myself in God so that I have consistent source of strength to connect with myself and others.

Love is being myself first and truly seeing and appreciating those around me.

Love is helping others when they fall and letting them help me when I fall.

Love is staying on my path, with God as my goal, and reaching out to befriend those whose paths touch mine.

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