Favorite Love Poems

No discussion of poetry would be even remotely complete without mention of love poems. Most likely, all of us have at least one favorite. Whether or not we can recite it, there’s usually something that we have heard that has touched our hearts. Here’s my favorite – and it’s best read aloud. I invite you […]

When Is Surrender Sweet?

Surrender can mean defeat . . . or surrender can mean transcendence. If it’s defeat, we are called upon to be strong, learn from what happened, and move beyond what we were fighting against. We can learn to be resilient. However, surrender can be useful if thought about in the context of giving in to […]

Granting A Reprieve In the Name of Love

Our annual celebration of love has its roots in the martyred St. Valentine who is rumored to have sent the first “official” note on February 14th, 269 A.D., the day he was executed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius. It was signed, “From Your Valentine.” In concluding our week about LOVING YOURSELF, what […]

Discipline Is Self Love

My friend, Carl Bressler, likes to say, “Discipline is self love” . . . a statement that speaks volumes about our topic of LOVING YOURSELF for this week of Valentine’s Day. The word “discipline” has the same root as “disciple,” which infers that discipline can be understood as “being true to and committed to core […]

Not Belonging and Loving Yourself Anyway

Groucho Marx said, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member” . . . a poignant and funny thought while we’re discussing LOVING YOURSELF! The “club” to which all of us belong is the human condition. All of us know its ups and downs. Let’s use […]

Loving Yourself Without Condition

Yep, February 14th is rapidly approaching. A time to celebrate romance . . . and a time to LOVE YOURSELF! Anthropologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said, “The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others, but ourselves as well.” Unconditional love . . . a fascinating and often elusive […]

Accepting Yourself Completely

This is Valentine’s Week, and we are drawn to thinking about hearts and chocolates and romance. A good time to consider our topic for this week: LOVING YOURSELF. It’s been said that you can’t truly love another until you love yourself. We live in a culture that constantly engages us in comparison to images of […]