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(The following is based on a true story)

Do you know who really loves you?

In those moments when you pause to consider and wonder at reality, do you include an examination of love?

If you find that a couple of people, or maybe even a few, truly love you, then you are fortunate. If you feel that several people truly love you, then you are blessed beyond all that is reasonable.

True love is a rare beast. Even rarer is to be visited by a true love that remains with us forever.

That’s who really loves you — the one who loves you unconditionally and forever.

So, now that you have cast about and found your people, do you hear them when they speak? Are you listening to what they have to tell you? They will tell you the truth if you ask.

And not necessarily the truth about you, but the truth about themselves.

We reveal the greatest truths about ourselves to the ones we love because we need for them to see us, we need for them to know us, and we need for them to love us in return.

Listening is the greatest gift we have to give, everything else can be done without effort or intent. Without any real meaning.

Listening is difficult. It takes presence, focus and commitment to the moment. You need to set your work, your distractions, yourself, aside and be open to some possible truth.

The problem with hearing a person who loves us reveal a truth is that it is almost impossible to bury it beneath our work, our distractions and ourselves. The power of their love makes it too real to turn from.

What if you don’t like what you hear? What if what you hear requires you to act outside of comfort? Or to alter your path enough to accommodate a companion — even just enough to make room for their truth in this moment.

It’s not easy to listen. And you can’t fake it when the person asking you to listen loves you.

The thing about hearing someone tell you their truth is that it leaves no room for you to ignore yours. You can’t listen to the truth without considering it.

Too often, we just stop hearing the ones who love us.

I know people who want to be heard, who try desperately to be heard, who need to be heard because their love is so big it needs to be known, to be embraced.

And they aren’t being heard, they aren’t being listened to by the ones they love. Why?

How great is the disconnect from love that you can’t find it in yourself to listen when it speaks?

If you stop listening to love, it will, eventually, stop trying to be heard.

Do you know who really loves you?

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