Life is a four letter word……..I think you spell it L-O-V-E

Mar 6, 2008

Life is a four letter word……..I think you spell it L-O-V-E

NOTE! If you enjoy this post, please feel free to share and twitter it with the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/2ukvt7 . Thanks, I appreciate it!

Joshua Clanton wrote a rather insightful post over at DailyBlogTips, entitled "Become a Blogging Wizard - 6 Lessons from Harry Potter". It inspired me to comment and also reminded me of the following profound poem that I first read back in 1986…22 years ago.

Life is a four letter word……..
I think you spell it L-O-V-E

It’s really as simple as that……

No, I don’t really think that I can totally describe love
but I do know some things about it.

Seems to me that in order
to be in love, you have to be
able to be weak.

Sure, certain aspects of love
take a real strength. But, it is true
that in order to experience love at its
best, you have to be able to be weak,
vulnerable and accept the possibility
that you might get hurt.

If you are too tough to let yourself be so
open for attack, then I am afraid you
can never feel love to its fullest.

Is it worth it to take such a risk.
I don’t know the answer to that….
but I do know that even though I have
gotten hurt occasionally, I would do it
all over again. The Joys were more
memorable than the pain.

Actually, most of the times that I ended
up hurt were not because I left myself
vulnerable, but rather that my stupidity
tricked me into arming myself against
“the one I loved”, so that she couldn’t hurt
me. Once I let myself take the defensive,
I usually ended up causing more problems
than I solved.

What should a person do:
Should a person be tougher and more
protective of themselves even though
they take away from the full effect of love….
Or should you be more vulnerable and
weak and open to possible attack….

I am WEAK! Not because
I choose to be this way….
but rather because in all honesty,
I know no other way.

I am weak….I sometimes get hurt….
but I have felt love….

-JT

Over 20 years it’s been since I first read those words (and JT, if you’re on the Internet still, drop me a line!)….and its magic still stays with me today.

Let’s now apply this to you. Let me ask you this question :

How do you feel when you’ve spent hours and hours answering a person’s question, or crafting the perfect blog post online, or dropping everything to help out with a friends’ writing essay or blog design or …. (you get my idea) …. and the appreciation you receive…is zilch?

If you’ve given with an expectation of positive reactions, you can end up feeling mighty miserable and taken for granted and start to ask yourself, gosh, why on earth did I ever help out/blog/research/etc. to begin with?

’tis certainly not an optimal position in which to find yourself!

But! If you choose to give with an open heart, and HAVE NO EXPECTATIONS for any responses, you eradicate any negative emotions you might feel…and end up being a stronger person to boot. After all, you have proactively chosen NOT to give anyone (your audience, your friends, etc.) the power over you to influence your emotions….while at the same time, have done a good deed that can revisit you years in the future.

This is true for love…this is true for friendship. This is true for you as a blogging author as well!

Give freely to your audience. I’m not the first person to suggest this of course; you can see similar ideas at

Demonstrate your knowledge and your abilities. Show your readers that you’re happy to share with no expectations…and the more your audience will want to learn from you. And in learning from you, they’ll tell their friends about your gifts as well.

From these tiny seeds, a mighty oak will grow. And you can take THAT to the bank.

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

(By the way, if you have any questions about the topics in this posting "Life is a four letter word……..I think you spell it L-O-V-E", do comment below - I'll try to clarify any issues).

Barbara Ling and Owlbert

If you find this blog posting useful, please feel free to share it below. And do feel free to let your friends know about it as well....I very much appreciate your time!

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3 Comments, Comment or Ping

Joshua Clanton - Design for the WEB

This is a really insightful post. The hard part, though is actually learning to leave your expectations behind. Even though I often want to, knowing that I spent a lot of time writing something can make it extremely difficult.

Thanks for the link as well!

Joshua Clanton - Design for the WEB’s last blog post..A Novel Approach to Web Design

Mar 6th, 2008
Owlbert

Thanks! What I find to be very helpful for me is to realize, everything happens for a reason. If you don’t get the reaction for which you were hoping now, that doesn’t mean some time in the future, the idea will click and people will thank you down the road. Life is always dynamic.

Best wishes,

Barbara

Mar 6th, 2008