Through It All Love Remains

Indescribable joy, hope and accomplishments mingle with pain, anguish and unimaginable losses; these are the chronicles of a life story. While the hills and valleys in our life may become our best told stories, it is the ordinary days that best describe life. The story continues as the future becomes the past and life goes on. Our best memories, even the ones about pain and loss, are stories about the love that remained steadfast in our lives, through it all. That is the most impressive, endearing, inspiring and important part of every story. Someone important to us stood before, behind or with us, through it all.

Why is it important to be loved, to feel welcomed into life and the opportunities it offers? To be loved is to be accepted, acceptable. It matters oh so much. A child born to loving parents eagerly awaiting their arrival can feel their welcoming emotions. As scary and painful as the birth experience may be, those loving emotions sustains and calms the fears of entering a brand new world. Without it, imagine being so tiny and feeling all alone in such a vast environment. Children born into those circumstances experience a lifetime of hesitation and emotional challenges, never feeling welcome anywhere; many never know the reason why.

Parents who make us feel loved inspire us to make good choices in our own life. It begins with our earliest opportunity to make choices like who we trust as friends and mentors and extends to who we choose as our life partner. This foundation allows us to become good parents who can surround our own children with love and balance in their lives; the kind that encourages them to grow and become the very best they can be. The best guidance comes through love.

Believing that you are loved and lovable allows you to fall down and know it can never change how you feel about yourself. Nor do you expect the world to misjudge or prejudge you. Love allows you to dare, to dream, to reach out and touch new ideas and opportunities; to exceed your expectations or make mistakes. Not feeling loved encourages you to make bad choices that frequently alter the course of your life in a painful way in an effort to feel accomplished, no matter the cost. Love is the firm foundation that allows you to stand tall, even if you wobble in the effort.

Love is the resounding cheer that propels you to try again and again. It is the warm hug that filters through the clouds, mingles with starlight, and finds its way to you heart on the path of a sunbeam, regardless of the distance. Through cheers, tears and ups and downs it is the sharing of love that protects and allows us to dare to try, again and again. Life indeed does go on, but through it all, love remains.