The Venn Diagram Experiment

My friend and fellow co-writer goddess Laurie wrote a poem in the form of a Venn Diagram.  I love some good Venn.  For those of you who perhaps don't remember high school math, here is a picture.  In her piece LL grooved on what she wanted v what she got as circles A and B respectively with much overlappage.  MUCH discussion ensued over this piece.  My knee jerk reaction was both love it and hate it at the same time.  Shit like that is like a puzzle for me to decipher.

When I first tried to imagine the "What I Wanted" circle v the "What I Got" circle, they are non-overlapping circles.  As a child and young adult, what I wanted most was to be normal.  I had not yet attained my adult understanding of just how boring 'normal' is.  Pretty sure hell is full of normal sameness. I wanted to stop being afraid.  I wanted not to have to hide.  I wanted just one person to see and love me just like I was.  I wanted safety.

In the "What I Got" circle was none of that.

As long as I looked for someone else to provide me with the things in my A circle, those circles remained stubbornly aloof from one another.  As I learned to be my own best friend, my own advocate, my own safety net, my own lover and boon companion, those circles began to dance slowly toward each other until they were nearly coincident.  As I saw that, I became aware how very much of my attention had been focused on the little sliver moon of A that I had yet to attain, instead of on the wealth of things in the 'both A & B' part.  I like both/and.  I am grateful to LL and for the overlap.  My focus is better served there.

So in response to this poem, I wrote the following love letter to myself.

I ♥ you.


I ♥ you for your intergalactic hominess.
I ♥ you for your ability to find beauty in unexpected places.
I ♥ you for your mountain switchback operating system
I ♥ you for your softness that invites other beings to call you home.
I ♥ you because you love rain.
I ♥ you for your capacity to step through the doorway of a book and be there.
I ♥ you for your patience.
I ♥ you for the way you accept the teeter totter of duality, occupying both seats and neither.
I ♥ you for your unwavering loyalty.
I ♥ you for your appreciation of silence.
I ♥ you for your ability to fly solo.
I ♥ you for your love of snug friendships
I ♥ you for your round belly that gives birth to the world.
I ♥ you for the way you wrangle words or let them flow trusting where they lead.
I ♥ your nerdiness
I ♥ you for your belief that everything will work out OK.  
I ♥ your belief in superheroes and that they exist within each of us.
I ♥ you for your ability to calm.  You are a people whisperer.  


I just ♥ you.