A chilly holiday

We are experiencing a “bomb cyclone” here in the USA and depending on where you are, how destructive and horrifying this experience will vary widely. I am fortunate enough to be safe, warm, dry and out of the path of heavy snowfall during this time and I am grateful.

I was treated to seductive terms of endearment and genuine compliments and lovely, poetic words of appreciation the other day from someone who is both comfortable with the use of love language and very good with it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to respond as earnestly as a woman might and I wonder if I had come off as chilly or not receptive on a deeper level. How do you tell someone that you are so busy looking for red flags and remembering the last person who was equally charming as they were destructive, that it is now impossible to relax and lose yourself in the poetry of their enthusiastic delight in you on first meetings?

I know some people (men included) have such overwhelming love and conceit of themselves that it never occurs to them that there is anything noteworthy about another person being smitten with them. After all, if they love themselves so much, how could anyone else not feel the same way about them? LOL

Personally, I like myself enough to not give my time or my presence to people who can’t or won’t appreciate what I offer but I am also a sponge for sweetness and compliments. I can’t imagine what kind of person would have the luxury of being dismissive or bored of such verbal treats. I savor all those compliments and squirrel them away to feast on when I am needing sustenance to get through cold days and nights of the heart.

Oh but those sweet words, those opened arms, that willing and optimistic embrace of all you appear to be and promise to be more of with them – it has an effect and those words linger pleasurably like the ghostly presence of a fragrance from the perfume of a lover who left your side hours ago. Sweet words are a balm and once I have realized that you are safe, trustworthy and a good memory to be had that is when those words receive the warmth they inspire.

It is the holidays and so, to you my friends I have known and new friends I may cross paths with in the future, I wish you peace as we end this year and the best that the next one can offer you. No matter how difficult, uncertain or unprecedented things in your life might be at any time, you are still the source of joy and gratitude for someone in this world. Even if they can’t express it in the moment when you are in front of them.

Good, decent people aren’t only found in church. They are found in private moments and unexpected places too.

I see you.

You matter.

You are appreciated.

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