Love doesn’t make the world go around. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
---Franklin Jones

I used to believe and insist that I knew how to love. I have always fallen in love hard, deep and fast. And while I know that those feelings were real, it is obvious from the inventories that I have done that there is a huge difference from being in love and loving well. It is also a glaring fact that I never loved well. I could not love myself, and as a result I could not love others well, I could not love life, and I could not love the God I claimed to believe in.

Through taking the steps of recovery, I discovered the treasure of loving myself. I discovered the amazing revelation that my Creator truly loves, accepts and values me. With this truth burning in my soul I found healing. I discovered my own self-worth that was not pumped up emotions from positive self-esteem mantras but rather an understanding of the truth of my positive and negative aspects. I do have value, and knowing I have value to God I can love myself. I can treat myself as though I have value to my Creator. It is no longer acceptable for me to use and abuse myself as though it doesn't matter if I hurt myself, if I plant the seeds of destruction in my life, or if I even cause my life to become forfeit.

Through learning to love myself I can now finally understand what it means to love others. To love others, I must treat the people I encounter, whether daily or once, as valued treasures of God. For if it is true that my Creator loves and values me, a man who has done so very little to deserve such love and has done so much to deserve rejection, then He also loves and values those I meet just as well. Through acts of tolerance, kindness and service I express love for others, and in return I find the joy, peace and hope in my life grow more and more. I find serenity. Through loving God the best I can, understanding and treating myself and others with kindness and value, I found a life worth living. I discovered the awesome feeling of loving life. I am no longer just trying to stop the pain, to find escape, relief, and pleasure until I am released from this plane of existence. I am enjoying and contributing to the beauty, love, joy and life with which the Creator blessed the inhabitants of this floating rock. What a turn around, what a better, easier and softer way of going through time.