Do you know?

You are ready for love. The first time in many years that your heart feels the need to be full of this power. It was so painful, the end of your last love affair. Finally healed, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Your body and soul exude the need for this. Passion, desire, intimacy, all feel so far away. How do you go about making this profound need a reality?

How do you know if it is real or just fantasy? From experience, you know how easy it is to create this perfect love affair in her mind. No one can tell you who, what, when, where this will happen or if it is even real. All new relationships feel like perfection. You have no idea who this person really is. All you know is that they say what you want to hear, feel and need at that moment. Is that it? Do they just know what it is you need at that moment to weasel their way into your heart? Make you feel emotionally safe to tear it away at that perfect moment?

What can you do to protect yourself from the wicked desires of someone that just wants to get you into their bed? Put up a wall? Ignore the feelings inside when you meet a person your heart wants to know? Hide inside away from the world, protecting yourself from the lesson you are truly meant to engage in? Become a raging bitch so no one even cares to try to know your heart?

That all sounds very lonely. If you desire self-love for the rest of time then go ahead and close yourself off from the world. Pain is a part of love. Meeting, loving, enjoying, investing yourself into someone means pain. It means all of these things you do are worth the pain. You learn what type of love you want, need. You learn how to make it work listening, learning from the pain you endured at the end of every great love in your life.

Leave the past where it belongs, in the past. Treating that new infatuation like the last love will never fulfill that need burning in your soul. The one you ponder on letting in is not the one you left behind. Yes, the pain sucks. Yes, the scars are real. Do not hide them. You are a fierce force to be reckoned with. Let those scars be seen. You have earned them! This life is yours, make it what you want. If this new love does not feel right well, it is not. Do not hold onto something because it feels familiar. You know it from the past, embedded in the scars.

Do not be afraid! New scars that are shallow will heal quickly and fade away. Staying somewhere you feel is familiar. Not happy. This will create a new scar that will never fade away. Make you happy! Spread your wings, try new and exciting relationships. Stop trying to find the one. They will come one day and at that time you will finally be ready to open your body, heart, mind, and soul to them. Why? Because you went out, failed, and tried again. You did not give up. You did not hide in a corner in the fetal position feeling sorry for yourself.

Now more than ever we need to be open, honest, and forthcoming with one another. In this time of uncertainty, we cannot afford to shelter ourselves from what could be. Take the risk. Let them in. Hug tightly. Smile brightly. Make passionate love. Stop running from what could be and fall for what is. We are all in this together. Hiding from reality in a world that is uncertain will cause our hearts to beat slower, happiness forgotten, and love misunderstood.

Yes, everyone needs to take great care of their own mental and physical health. If you are not right how can you expect to enter into a conductive, responsible, lucrative engagement with another? If you need to talk then talk. If you need a hug? Grab someone close and hold them. Stop fearing the worst and give your best to everyone and everything around you. Exactly! You may fail. Fall flat on your face. What did you learn from that? Use it to your advantage and change what YOU need to change. Do not try to change someone. If you stay the same what good did it do to "fix" them while you are still broken?

Spend time to work on you. Do all of those things you felt were out of reach, unattainable. What do you have to lose? Failing is a part of life. Stand up, dust yourself off and make more attainable goals. Do not reach for the stars on your first attempt.

You want love, passion, intimacy, happiness, joy, companionship. So many things that can become true. Start with friendship and work your way to these things. Or jump right in and tear their clothes off having your way with them and see where it goes. It is all up to you. This is YOUR life. Let no one take you from the path to what you want. It may be painful at times, exhausting, and feel like unrelenting chaos. What fun is life without diversity? All things go hand in hand. How you handle them will either make you stray from your path or drudge forward making everyone envious of how you take on the world around you.

Love lots, laugh at wholeheartedly work hard and, show yourself that you are worth fighting for. To find what you desire you must look inside. Once you know, do not let anything stand in your way. It is your time to shine. Make the sun block the rays coming from your soul!

Just remember, love yourself first. Be happy with who you are. Love cannot thrive one-sided. Give it all you've got. You have one life to live, make it worthwhile! Let us see who you really are, inside and out.