Love Thyself

It is not a hard thing to do: loving other people. You would have found during your tender years that to love a parent, a puppy, and even, to love your playmates, comes easy. During my sixty odd years of life, I’ve loved many people; notably my own family – warts and all.

Your father came to call on me when he was released from prison last month. Again he was acting in the best interest of the love of his life; irrespective what we might think of her. He elected to do the time for the fraud that she had committed. He truly loved her.

Your mother was the second person who he went to greet that day. He dearly wished to see you, but you were at the kindergarten. He has kept up the payment for this private institution at the expense of impoverishing himself. He even stole some of my jewellery once to pawn to meet the deposit for the school year. I’ve never mentioned to him that I knew that he had taken the family heirlooms – I loved him too much to humiliate him. The kneejerk reaction would be to hate someone who has done us wrong.

All we can ever do is to live life to the best of our ability, as he did, before his heart gave out.

I wish for you to love and honour your father’s memory. I had taught him to love others, but had neglected to teach him to love himself.

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