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"I used to think I was invincible, like most young people do. I knew everything, knew exactly who I was, could have conquered the world. My grandmother, with a smile sewn of wisdom, told me if I really wanted the truth, I should stand in front of a mirror. She told me:
“Meet yourself in the mirror, make a date of it. Look closely, and even if it’s strange, keep on looking until your eyes became skies with constellations of light, and the rest of the world fades away. Examine every inch of your face, and feel however you feel about it. Be thorough. See even the things you don’t like to see. When you know your face like you’d know a friend’s, meet your eyes again. If it’s awkward or forced, do the best that you can, and with all the sincerity you can muster, say, ‘I love you.’”
I thought it was stupid, and I told her that right there, but for some reason I still crept into the bathroom that night to rendezvous with my eyes. I was surprisingly awkward, awkwardly shy, and stood with my gaze turned down, like I was seeing myself for the first time. With a flutter in my stomach I met my own stare, and though everything in me protested, I let out a half breath that carried an almost inaudible whisper of the words… I love you… and then I cried uncontrollably because I knew it wasn’t true.
I stood in that bathroom every night for a year, and I lied to my eyes until I could rewrite the truth. When I looked in the mirror and knew for the first time that I loved myself, I also knew I would never need anything else to survive.
My grandmother knows me, and instead of telling, she showed me that love is a tree, and if we don’t grow the roots, we’ll spend our lives collecting dry leaves; they are charming when pressed in books and kept in picture frames but they don’t grow up to feed our families the way seeds do.
She told me:
“You cannot say, ‘I love you,’
without the implied foundation
of, ‘but I love myself, first.’
If you don’t love yourself,
every time you have ever said,
‘I love you,’
it was a lie.”
And she was right."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqMfHdoEEnE
“Meet yourself in the mirror, make a date of it. Look closely, and even if it’s strange, keep on looking until your eyes became skies with constellations of light, and the rest of the world fades away. Examine every inch of your face, and feel however you feel about it. Be thorough. See even the things you don’t like to see. When you know your face like you’d know a friend’s, meet your eyes again. If it’s awkward or forced, do the best that you can, and with all the sincerity you can muster, say, ‘I love you.’”
I thought it was stupid, and I told her that right there, but for some reason I still crept into the bathroom that night to rendezvous with my eyes. I was surprisingly awkward, awkwardly shy, and stood with my gaze turned down, like I was seeing myself for the first time. With a flutter in my stomach I met my own stare, and though everything in me protested, I let out a half breath that carried an almost inaudible whisper of the words… I love you… and then I cried uncontrollably because I knew it wasn’t true.
I stood in that bathroom every night for a year, and I lied to my eyes until I could rewrite the truth. When I looked in the mirror and knew for the first time that I loved myself, I also knew I would never need anything else to survive.
My grandmother knows me, and instead of telling, she showed me that love is a tree, and if we don’t grow the roots, we’ll spend our lives collecting dry leaves; they are charming when pressed in books and kept in picture frames but they don’t grow up to feed our families the way seeds do.
She told me:
“You cannot say, ‘I love you,’
without the implied foundation
of, ‘but I love myself, first.’
If you don’t love yourself,
every time you have ever said,
‘I love you,’
it was a lie.”
And she was right."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqMfHdoEEnE
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 625 x 1125px
File Size 324.3 kB
Bah! OneEyedDoe sent this to me, and I'm really glad she did!
Goodness, this has me in tears right now.
But this person's right. Some people go an entire Lifetime without ever saying " I Love Myself "..
For some it's hard. They grew up in a world that taught them only about Hate, they begin to form Hate inside for others and for themselves. It's a Jaded world. I've seen children, teens, adults and old folk whom have hated themselves. Never knowing what it's like to truly Love themselves. Inside and Out. All the imperfections get us all caught up in our day-to-day lives. The media teaches the younger ones what Beauty is and anything that they are is Wrong.
Children who grow up alone, without anyone to guide them, constantly being ripped apart.. they end up growing up to think of themselves as the worst thing that could happen to them.
Children like me. v . v..
I don't talk about it, myself.. But I admit. I don't Love myself. Not fully. Not to the core. Not as much as I would like to. I know I won't be one of those ones that it takes a Lifetime to look in the Mirror and say " I love you ".. But I know I'm not to that point yet. I hate admitting that. I don't really tell anyone, either. But this just really hit me, so I'm sorry for the spew..
Sometimes I think it takes another Perspective on your Life for you to see your own world through someone else's eyes. A chance to see what they find admirable and lovable about you. But I also think it takes an equal part of yourself over-coming things that have happened and moving onward to things that will happen. That equal part that's all your own has to stand on it's own two feet and work to Love itself. It has to over-look all the flaws and scars. It has to really wrap itself around it's own world and accept it for who it is, not what someone else says it should be.
I think that's one of the hardest tasks in my life. One of the toughest Paths I have to take and honestly? I've not made it through yet. I hope one day I can look in that Mirror and really say " I Love You ".. and really mean it, too.
Because when I say " I Love You " to my best friends, my lover, my pets, my family, the world around me.. I DO mean it. I don't want them to think it's coming from a Hallow Heart that can't Love itself yet. It scares me most to think that in order to Love others, you have to Love yourself.
It makes me think.. Do I really love anyone, then?
I hate second-guessing myself. :S
Goodness, this has me in tears right now.
But this person's right. Some people go an entire Lifetime without ever saying " I Love Myself "..
For some it's hard. They grew up in a world that taught them only about Hate, they begin to form Hate inside for others and for themselves. It's a Jaded world. I've seen children, teens, adults and old folk whom have hated themselves. Never knowing what it's like to truly Love themselves. Inside and Out. All the imperfections get us all caught up in our day-to-day lives. The media teaches the younger ones what Beauty is and anything that they are is Wrong.
Children who grow up alone, without anyone to guide them, constantly being ripped apart.. they end up growing up to think of themselves as the worst thing that could happen to them.
Children like me. v . v..
I don't talk about it, myself.. But I admit. I don't Love myself. Not fully. Not to the core. Not as much as I would like to. I know I won't be one of those ones that it takes a Lifetime to look in the Mirror and say " I love you ".. But I know I'm not to that point yet. I hate admitting that. I don't really tell anyone, either. But this just really hit me, so I'm sorry for the spew..
Sometimes I think it takes another Perspective on your Life for you to see your own world through someone else's eyes. A chance to see what they find admirable and lovable about you. But I also think it takes an equal part of yourself over-coming things that have happened and moving onward to things that will happen. That equal part that's all your own has to stand on it's own two feet and work to Love itself. It has to over-look all the flaws and scars. It has to really wrap itself around it's own world and accept it for who it is, not what someone else says it should be.
I think that's one of the hardest tasks in my life. One of the toughest Paths I have to take and honestly? I've not made it through yet. I hope one day I can look in that Mirror and really say " I Love You ".. and really mean it, too.
Because when I say " I Love You " to my best friends, my lover, my pets, my family, the world around me.. I DO mean it. I don't want them to think it's coming from a Hallow Heart that can't Love itself yet. It scares me most to think that in order to Love others, you have to Love yourself.
It makes me think.. Do I really love anyone, then?
I hate second-guessing myself. :S
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