LOVE HURTS

♬    LOVE HURTS

        by Nazareth

Love hurts,
Love scars,
Love wounds and marks
Any heart not tough or strong enough
To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain
Love is like a cloud, it holds a lot of rain
Love hurts,
Ooo-oo love hurts

I'm young,
I know,
But even so
I know a thing or two, I learned from you
I really learned a lot, really learned a lot
Love is like a flame It burns you when it's hot
Love hurts,
Ooo-oo love hurts

Some fools think
Of happiness, blissfulness, togetherness
Some fools fool themselves, I guess
They're not foolin' me
I know it isn't true I know it isn't true
Love is just a lie made too many blue
Love hurts,
Ooo-oo love hurts

I know it isn't true
I know it isn't true
Love is just a lie made too many blue
Love hurts,
Ooo-oo love hurts
Ooo-oo, love hurts, Ooo-oo

A Friend to myself

Get Up And Boogie from Just A Friend on Vimeo.

Being loved can be frightening

So I've been having a series of good days, and feeling pleased and comfortable, until today. Something happened today that I don't believe has ever happened to me before in my life. My Dad had come to visit, and my psychologist happened to come by while he was here. She was very very kind to my Dad, and she also had very very positive things to say about me. My family has had a long, agonizing time of it all these years trying to get proper help for me. But up until this woman, who cared about me enough not to ever halt my progress just for the money... put it this way: this woman cared both about me and then too, my Dad. It's called responsibility. Handling the position with full sobriety.

And so, the outcome of her visit was that my Dad's thinking about me was transformed. He was very pleased with everything. The way I looked, the way I smiled, and many more things made him very proud.

Well, all of this, my psychologist's positive attitude, and my Dad's newfound confidence in me, resulted in me feeling so strange, that this evening I began to develop physical symptoms. First off, I was convinced I had a high temperature, and I had them check my temp 3 times and it was perfectly normal. Then, after that subsided, I honestly felt I couldn't breathe at all. Fortunately, I have a respiratory therapist tonight who has known me for years, and she very patiently came and tried to help me.

To conclude, friendship can be terrifying for some people. I am looking now at a future of self acceptance, and being wanted and appreciated for what I have to offer. And my Dad jumping on board with it all is just truly amazing. I fear God. That's something I pray will never change. But to fear being loved is not right.

♬    Rebecca St. James: Stand

My adventures with PowerPoint

What is your dream? from Raya Stuiver
This here is a PowerPoint presentation. Somehow I heard about "SlideShare", and I became curious about it and decided, wouldn't it be cool to figure out how to do one? And so, this is basically my third one. I will probably be sharing most of them with y'all because I think what I've been sharing on SlideShare is related to what I share here on Always Your Friend. Hope you like it.

Trust and Never Doubt (by Rizen)

Trust and Never Doubt from Just A Friend on Vimeo.

Getting off of other people's sins, and onto their strengths

This here can make life so much easier. I want to get my focus back on friendship. Friendship is not about changing people, it's about accepting them and loving them right where they are. And this applies to our world view. We should not be aiming to change the world. Rather, our highest hope should be to find meaningful friendships, and enjoy life.

See, a few days ago, I found out that someone close to me is doing something unwholesome. At first, I was completely shocked. I felt hurt that my own ideals and the way I've chosen to live meant so little to him. And earlier today, I realized something. My friends' sins are none of my business. This person loves me and I love him as well, and anything he does that really has no affect on me or our friendship, there is no reason for me to involve myself in. How freeing is that?

Let us stop seeking to fit people into our mold. Matter-of-fact, we probably should toss the mold in the garbage. Even fitting ourselves into it every day gets awfully tedious! Let us, as we seek to make friends, not go into it with an attitude that we're going to go straight for finding out their weakness and teach them how to be like us. That's not friendship. It's fixing people. Being in a fixing position with people is really a drag, isn't it?

Instead, let us meet people with the thought that we will find out all the cool things about them. Let us look to know what makes them happy. Let us find out what foods they like, what sports they like, what actors and musicians they like. I bet there are amazing things to be found out about everybody.

I think what happened to me many years ago, is that I felt so utterly unloved, that something inside me died. And after that, I coped by deciding that I was going to play "the sage". And I pictured in my mind that I was going to sit in my apartment in this enlightened state of mind, and that everybody was going to come to my door, and I would know exactly what Bible verse to share, and their lives would be changed forever. It was my broken heart that caused me to create that in my mind.

Do you think maybe we get hopelessly hurt in love, and our need to fantasize is birthed, and we decide: we're going to be a billionaire, we're going to marry our favorite singer, we're going to become an important world figure? Not only are these things unlikely to happen, but even if they should, they don't remove the original problem, a broken heart.

A broken, lonely heart needs love. There was a time when I was very very broken. And I tried achieving my own little agenda. But it only made things worse. Because indeed I don't know the solution to everybody's problems, neither individually or collectively. What I need is the courage to ask you to be my friend. To like something about me in a real way.

♬    Michelle Tumes: Do Ya

Neither Will I