Dear  Lisa:

What  I understand about people and love is that  we are all born loving, loving those who take care of us when we are children, parents usually, grandparents in some  cases, older siblings in other cases. Babies and toddlers love, always, reaching  out for love, will do  anything  to please, to  be  liked.. loved.

And then life happens, rejecting parents, critical parents, unavailable, neglectful and  the  child is often Alone. Sometimes so very Alone that the child hardens, becomes hard. As this hardened child grows up,  there  are  so many other hardened  people out there… so love is difficult to find.

Many of the relationships you think of as loving are not, they are  only attempts at love.

To be “loved for who I am”- that  is almost a miracle when it happens, not  only for you, really.

anita