Leo Buscaglia
Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.


Dear Leslie,

Indeed, self-love is life's vitamin. Self-love requires one to be the loved and the lover. Self-love requires the understanding of the nuance in giving and receiving. Self-love cannot be taught, only revealed with discovery. Self-love is what refines the diamond in the rough. Self-love is where we live in an elevated plane, one close enough to God and far enough to know our journey is still long.

I admit before my crisis, I was like one of the fools that walk the earth--morose and manipulative, assuming and aloof. When God forced me to stop and look at myself through the microscope, I was startled, saddened and slapped in the face at how problematic a human being I was. I had a litany of issues that I had always tossed in a corner of my mind and left to collect dust. Eventually, they caught up with me.

Perhaps this is the reason for "spring-cleaning". Painstaking but liberating. In my spring-cleaning through this blog, outstanding issues--some I was not even aware of--was brought to the fore.

And I realize how much strength I have, because I let God work in me. In him, I can accomplish anything I set my sights on. As I work through the heap of personal foibles laboriously, the greater willingness to confront them, the greater the honesty I use to deal with them, the greater I repair myself and imbue what you so rightly term "self-love".

I skimmed your site and was impressed at how dedicated you are to transforming your life. And to be endowed a few minutes of your reading and replying is an honour. I am young and still finding my way. My name is Isabella. My current condition is a stubborn chronic atopic dermatitis, a result of a highly toxic state of mind and body.

Thank you for your love.