Give the Kind of Love you Have

The following passage was published in Patti Digh's little book, What I Wish for You : Simple Wisdom for a Happy Life. When her daughter graduated high school and left for college, Patti asked her friends to give her daughter some advice on such a momentous occasion. Watch the video for more info.

There's a lot of great wisdom there in this little book. This one in particular rang true for me :



Give the Kind of Love You Have
by Tamara Bailie

One thing I wish I would have known earlier in my life is this ... the love you take into your heart as you live your days is going to come from many different people. You hear often in stories and songs and movies about the ONE person whose love will be everything to you, who will be everything you ever needed. What you will find, however, is that people give what they have. We are wired differently. You will find people whose love feeds your mind, and people whose love feeds your sense of humor, and people whose love you can count on at 2:00 am on a random Tuesday. When you let all of those different kinds of love into your spirit, it will smooth out the rough spots, filling in the tiny spaces left behind from moments of pain and misunderstanding. One person may not fill the role of providing every kind of love you need, and that is what makes life interesting. When you let different people play the parts they are best at playing, it allows them to simply be who they are when they are with you. And when you can give the kind of love you have to the world, you can simply be who you are, giving what you have to give. People sometimes seem to let us down simply because they don't seem to give us what we need. Try to remember that they are giving what they know, what they've been shown, and what they have. Many of us are carrying much more than we need, and sometimes all that we carry can keep us from seeing all that we are. You can lighten the load for people each time you offer acceptance of their stories, acknowledgment of their songs, and awareness of what makes them unique. Hold on to the love people have to give, and let go of anything else they've handed you to carry. And keep your own carry-on bag as light as you can, so you can see who you are, where you're going, and what you're leaving behind for the ones you love.