"Life is the classroom. Love is the lesson."

[Tobin S.]

I saw that on a bumper sticker the other day. I need one of those for my car. I think it's the coolest bumper sticker I've ever seen.

It sort of hints at a religious slogan, but I don't think you have to be a religious person to dig it. I'm not a religious person. I don't believe in hell as an afterlife sort of thing. I think hell is of this world and I think I've been there. Maybe some of you have been there or feel like you are there right now. As far as heaven goes, I think that of it does exist then we all go there.

I am in love for the first time in my life and I'm thinking that I'll be with her for the rest of my life. We are getting married in November. I think back to what a struggle the first 30 years of my life were and to a lesser extent the next 8 after that. All of that time I had no love in my life. I didn't know how to love. I didn't know how to let someone love me.

I wasn't a bad person, but there was something inside of me that wouldn't allow me to love. Deep down it was really what I wanted. I wanted someone to be with me and to be on my side. But I had to walk through hell to get there. And I did, yes I did...and you can, too.

The biggest problem I had after I started to get the treatment I needed was that of self-loathing. I had a lot of shame and regret to deal with. Things got better with the more distance I put between myself and the hellish experience of my 20s, but I couldn't quite get that self-loathing thing kicked. Then I met my love and things changed.

What the mental health professionals couldn't quite fix, love did. Not only do I have someone to be on my side, I also feel better about myself. The self-loathing is gone. I've also found that I treat others in a kinder way. My personal love radiates around me and out to others. I think we all have that within ourselves, it's just a question of finding it.

[elleng]

1. ...

:thumbsup:

[InkAddict]

2. And the most important teachers in your life all carry

a carrot on a stick in one hand and a lethal weapon in the other. After having done the homework, written the essays. and taken the tests, it's still possible to be expelled from a particular school for not meeting the standards the "teacher" requires. Be prepared to be enrolled in a school for the "love blind" where the beatings will continue until morale improves and standards are met or exceeded, though those criteria change minute to minute in what amounts to a smidgen of passing time of existence. The best you're ever going to get is a Certificate of Participation; the worst - you'll never make tenure. There's plenty of distractions and competition. Your disease d'jour does have a cure..."Pray" the frustration of learning continues a good long time and enjoy the experience - You get the lethal blow eventually.

No too supportive, I know, but my truth of the moment.

[Tobin S.]

3. I'll just stick a daisy in the barrel of your rifle.

Don't you think that real love exists? The lesson isn't just for peasants like me, it's for everyone, including those doing the killing. Some people never learn, unfortunately, but the lovers aren't the ones dishing out the pain.