Love Like That

I know for sure that love saves me and it is here to save us all.

Maya Angelou

Celebrating love like there is no tomorrow, because tomorrow is not really guaranteed.

With Valentine's Day around the corner, it is kind of inevitable that I write about Love.

Insert every R&B song ever written, especially the 90's and early 00's jams where singers used to stand in the rain and get soaking wet while singing their heart out. Oh Love: We grow into it, we grow out of it, we pour it into other people hoping for it to be poured right back into us.

When I was younger, I always thought of love as something that had to do with another person. It couldn't exist without someone else. There was love in fairytales that always ended with a happily ever after, the princess and her prince, ultimate happiness. But, what about the love beyond the highly unrealistically picture perfect frame?

Love was the helping hand that reached out to me when I was drowning. Love came in various forms, in a partner, in family, in friends, in my purpose, but most of all love came in God. A higher being who was there when no one else was. When life was everything but love, the roses had wilted, the sun had gone down and the night was pitch black.

Loving myself was a concept I never really understood because I didn't want to be selfish. In the society and culture I come from, self love is seen as something that is not right, it is always about everyone else first and then maybe at the very end there was a tiny space (if any) left for us. So I gave, I poured into everyone but myself, neglecting myself internally and externally. Until I came to a point where I told myself that it was enough. I had to unlearn what I knew about self love. Taking care of my spirit and my body was a form of self love too. Sticking to what I had planned on doing is a also a form of self love. Protecting my space from negativity and spaces that do not bring peace. So are positive affirmations and treating myself with something nice, among many other things.

Only when I started knowing my worth and loving me for me is when I was able to love the people surrounding me. I mean, how can we give something to others that we can't give ourselves? It is paradox to say that we love others but we dislike and do not love ourselves.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, the worldwide day of love. But let us celebrate love every day. Be kind to yourself. Let us extend the love that has been nurtured and grown inside of us to those around us because at the end of the day: What is life without love?

Love,

Maame