#AtoZChallenge
#participant
Letter L
LOVE
Thoughts about love...
Whatever is based in love, should not be shamed.
Living A Life Based On Love
Love yourself first = You can't give from empty.
Love Each Other = Be Kind, Respectful, and Let people be their authentic selves, without thinking you get to have any say in that.
Inhabitants (Animals) = Restore Habitats, Adopt A Pet or Two or Three or...
Earth and the environment = Plant some seeds, trees, and don't be trashy.
Responsible Hate is LOVE = Hating what is damaging to humans, the inhabitants, and the Earth, working to correct the damage or even not allowing it, in the first place.
Love Languages
You can read about this more over here and here if you'd like to, as well as research further by reading the book (no affiliation) or additional articles on this topic. This is often associated with romantic love but I think with a bit of appropriate adjustments, it might also be useful for other relationships too, in terms of showing love to each other in general.
These love languages are Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Gifts, and Physical Touch. In terms of romantic relationships or non romantic relationships, two of my three primary love languages out of the five, are Acts of Service and Gifts.
I tend to prefer gifts that are practical or useful to me, as it applies to daily life, my interests or skills, more than some other items that are typically gifted. I recall when I was a child, my maternal grandmother once gifted us several large boxes full of non food essentials, and I thought that was such a loving kind thing to do.
She also took my sister and I shopping and let us pick out our winter coats, we lived in Detroit at the time. She also gifted me a nice desk to do my homework at, though sadly I didn't get to bring it with me when we moved to Miami in 1981. Of course I am grateful no matter the type of gift but I tend to prefer these types of things.
I consider Acts of Service to have the greatest value in both a romantic or non romantic relationship. This usually amounts to being helpful or supportive to each other in some practical way. I think it's great when people help each other, and lessen each others burdens in life, when and if they can.
Words of Affirmation are not as necessary to me in general, and as long as you aren't being hostile at all, or rude more often than not, things should be fine between us. A separate topic maybe, and I can talk a lot sometimes, but since I am a bit introverted, I prefer the talking or commentary to be much less overall. I also think that helping people with their practical needs is far better than offering up a bunch of words. An excess of words can be burdensome, IMO.
Quality time does factor in of course but I don't necessarily require a regularly scheduled thing. I do like to go places from time to time but I don't like traveling that much. I usually prefer to stay home, as long as home is good. I appreciate being able to have some time to myself to pursue my interests or educational efforts.
I think it's totally reasonable that the other people in my life might like to do the same or maybe even just get some quality sleep after a long day of work. If everyone is being a decent adult, working, and being supportive to each other, then a shared meal might often be our quality time. That's fine with me. Maybe it's the introvertedness? :P
While I might appreciate physical touch within a romantic relationship, I am extremely selective about this sort of thing with other relationships. I often limit any other type of physical interaction to a select group of people. This was usually my children, and occasionally close relatives or a few friends.
Being a mom has been one of my favorite "jobs" so of course it was not a problem to show love to my children and hug them whenever they wanted. As they got older I left it up to them more. I also didn't teach my children that they needed to allow hugging or other physical interactions with various people, just because it was considered "acceptable" or "necessary" to do these things.
I think it's love to others and even to yourself, when you can allow or not allow whatever you want or don't want. Keeping all things mutually agreeable and consenting, with nothing being forced. Not feeling like you have to make yourself available to anyone else, in some way, unless you want to. It's really important.
I think that's it for now, and also the last post for this week. Possibly in a future post, I will share some thoughts about whatever is not love, or just a ton of irresponsible nonsense. I hope you return on Monday for Letter M. Until then I wish you an awesome day, evening, and weekend!
Julie
@jmdCREATIVE
No comments:
Post a Comment