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*Way back in T-pisode 187 I wrote about the word forgiveness followed by T-pisode 205 where I defined my version of the word success. Two of the most difficult T-pisodes I ever forced myself to write but felt I had to share. A lot of people want to know more about my opinions on life and how I see things the way I do and the reasons behind it all. So I’m obliging. For the next 10 Mondays 2/17/14-4/21/14 I am going to write about a particular word and show the world how I define it. Something different but I hope you take something away from it all. Enjoy.
Oh boy. This is the big one. 225 T-pisodes in and I’m finally going to take a crack at defining love? Growing up the way I did, I never really said the word. Nor did I really hear it. That didn’t mean that I didn’t know how to love or that I wasn’t loved. WE (my family, friends, people from East Boston in general) just didn’t say it. As a grown man now I still don’t know why we were all like that. I can’t explain it. It’s just one of those things that you have to use the classic “it is what it is” or “it was what it was” and move on. We did show love by busting each other’s balls however. How much you purposely annoyed someone, teased them or joked with them were the ways I was shown and taught how to love. The more you made someone laugh, the more you loved them. The more they laughed at you, the more they loved you. That’s the love I knew growing up.
But this is now and I’m all grown up. And now while I still love to bust the balls of the people I love, I now say it. Sometimes. I also try to show it more and in different ways. Being as busy as I am is both a gift and a curse. I don’t have a lot of time for anything outside of my daily routine but there is no way I will not make the time for the people I love. It’s actually been the love that I have for the people I care about that made me realize it was time to move on from certain people and to focus and make the time for the people I really love. So now I say it, I still bust balls, I make them laugh and I make time for them. Not because they tell me to but because I want to. Love isn’t just a word or a feeling. It’s how you show it not just how you say it. I can take my mother to Italy, play a game of UNO with my nieces & nephew, reminisce with my buddy on a ride down to a Patriots game, sit on the couch and tell my nieces how their daddy was growing up, get crazy loud at the dinner table during Christmas Eve when I tell a story and seeing the smiles on the faces of my family…all very different ways of how I show love. Or I can even get a beautiful woman her favorite flowers, send her a sweet funny text, show her that I remember little details about her that I never remembered with any woman before her…all ways of how I show love. I can be romantic. I can be sweet. I’ve been called a charmer. I’ve been known to be a ladies man from time to time. But a woman will know I love her. Believe me. My friends know I love them. Trust me. And my family knows I love them. If I ever made you smile for whatever the reason or showed you I remembered something about you that you didn’t think I did or if I always pull you in for a big hug when I see you, know that I love you. If that’s not enough, I promise to do my best to even say it to you a lot more.
And on the other side of that coin I like to be loved the same way. Look, I can’t go 18 hours a day living my life without feeling or seeing the love from the people I care about. The texts & phone calls I get keep me going every single day. Even more so when I get to spend time with those people. It makes me feel like everything I do every day is for a reason. For something. I’m this way and work as hard as I do for the people I love just as much as I do it all for myself. You have to remember and think about the people you love all the time. I think we all forget to do that sometimes or don’t do it enough. All the money, accomplishments and cool shit in the world don’t mean a damn thing if you can’t share them with the people you love. Love is the reason the world goes round. Don’t ever forget that or try to convince yourself otherwise. So say it. Show it. Give it. Get it. And feel it.
Until next time. Always take it there.
T
T-blawg 