YOU WERE BORN TO BE LOVED!
ONE PLUS ONE IS THE ONLY NUMBER THAT COUNTS THIS CHRISTMAS!
******This newsletter is best listened to by pressing play on the audio recording :)
Today I start my newsletter with a song….here we go…..It’s the beautiful Ray LaMontagne with Sierra Ferrell….. I’m going to start with the lyrics but I beg, plead and encourage you to listen to this song. I’ve linked it here and I promise you will fall instantly in love with it and you will feel what I feel as I write this letter…..I’d love you to press pause on this recording and just play the song and then return back to the audio recording and fall in with my thoughts, my words…my heart…..
You give me a sign, you give me a lift
Take me home when I'm done my shift
You get me a loan when I'm stone cold broke
Get me high when I need a toke
I was born to love
I was born to
I was born to love
I was born to
Times were tough, we made it through
We tasted the rough, so let's savor the smooth
All the time I was hurting you
Got to believe that I was hurting, too
I was born to love
I was born to
Born to love
I was born to
You're the only one I can talk to
The only one I can really read
I know you give because you want to
Don't you think it's time you learn to let yourself receive?
Could make you smile, could make you sing
Just want to give back a little bit of what you give me
I could sing you a song, play you a tune
I know it's just a little thing, but it's something I can do
I was born to love
I was born to
I was born to love
I was born to
So Substack family…The reason I started with that song about love and the journey love goes on no matter how smooth the path looks is because LOVE is always the answer no matter what time of the year it is. Also no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve been through, we all deserve love in our lives no matter what shape, what form or what relationship it comes in. Also not only do we deserve love but it’s also very important to know that love can go astray. It’s not always straight forward. It’s not always easy. It’s not always obvious of how we can attain it. But the most importantly element I think this week’s letter will focus on is that you have so much love inside you that you must never forget what that beautiful heart of yours offers to the world and also the amount of people who hold love inside of them because of you.
Love is the answer to all questions. Love is the resolve to all problems. Love is the light that can take away the dark.
Today I write this letter remembering all those who struggle at this time of the year. Those who struggled with the overwhelming feeling of this oncoming festive season. Those who feel burdened by pressures. Those who feel alone in amongst the perceived idea that this is a time of the year that everything must be perfect and in place. Those who feel anxious of what comes next. Those who grieve the loss of someone they love. Those who might not feel so comfortable in the spaces they find themselves at this time of the year. Those who have gone through a tough year and feel they cannot make it through this particular pressured time. Those who feel unwell in themselves whether mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally or maybe you just don’t feel like yourself. Maybe you feel lost or lonely. Maybe you miss someone from you life. Maybe you miss a relationship you once had. Maybe you lost your job. Maybe you lost your family. Maybe you lost yourself. This time of the year definitely highlights our losses and intensifies our struggles in a way that no other time of the year does.
But I am here to offer you a comforting hug to say that you are not alone and I offer you my love. I offer you all the love I hold in my heart and I am holding you. I am offering you this space to know you are NOT ALONE. I am here for you and I am here to remind you of the LOVE you hold inside you. I am here to remind you that so many people love you. People you know. People who don’t know you yet. The wonderful thing about this world and it’s something I’ve learned through going through my own personal losses is that even though we lose things, we lost people, we lose relationships, we lose safety spaces, we lose hands to hold, we lose hearts to love and voices we once loved, even after all that loss, there is always….ALWAYS…opportunity to LOVE again. Even though we feel alone and often we can physically be alone, we carry within us a very special superpower and that power is to LOVE AGAIN…..we were born to love as Ray sings about.
We were born to keep trying. We were to keep going. We were born to keep looking up for love. We are and will always go through hard times. Things will always go astray. Love will even go astray. But the most important message I want you to hear today as you listen to this is that you are full of love inside you and the most magical things about your human body, mind and soul is your capacity to LOVE. Even though there has been and will be times when our lights within us will dim and there will be times when we feel our light to love, our light to live will not want to shine or even might want to give up, this letter is to remind you to not give up.
As my best friend Winnie the Pooh states, and as I like to repeat over and over, to myself on many of occasion, ‘You are braver than you believe, you are stronger than you seem, and you are smarter than you think.’ and to add in Ray La Montagne, ‘You were born to love’…..So keep going even when you want to give up. If you feel alone, please know you are not. I am here for you. I love you. I see you. I feel you. I know the pain you are feeling. I too have felt it. But what I promise you today is that no matter how this Christmas season tries to drown out your light, just keep going, day by day and step by step. You will come through this dark time and you will come back into the light.
Things will happen that we wish we could change, people will leave that we wish we could keep but at the end of the day you will be loved by those who are meant to be in your world. You will be surrounded by the light that is meant for you. You will shine from within and you must never give up on yourself. Lean in on yourself, you have strength in there that you will find when you need it and you have so much love to give away. Give it to those who love you and it will multiply. Keep those who love and support you close. Nod and smile at those who you must nod and smile at. Step out of the way of people who make you feel less than you deserve. You deserve the best. You are the best. you are a good human with an amazing heart. And no matter how many Christmases come and go, we must try and remember that just to have one person who loves us is always enough. It’s actually the perfect amount. Any more than this is bonus territory.
Lets take a visual….you are out at sea, a storm is brewing on every side and a wave rocks your boat and you are about to fall out to the wild waters of the ocean…One person on your boat with one hand grabs a hold of the smallest piece of your jacket….you’re caught…you don’t fall in. You’re saved by one hand…one person…One is all we need. We can be loved by one person. We can be saved by one person. We can love one person. We can save one person. One is what makes this world a magical space. If one person spoke kindly, softly and lovingly to someone who was about to give up on their life, that one person could save a light from being turned off, a life from being ended. That person could save a whole family from a nightmare that they might never escape…If you were in trouble and one person offered to save you, we would remember the power of number one. One is all we need in this world. One heart. One voice. One hand. One reason to keep living. One light in the darkness. One is a magical number and often it is overlooked in a world where millions and millions of numbers are presented to us everyday. Millions of this and millions of day…thousands of this and thousands of that. We enter the shop aisle and we are presented with so much stuff. We glance at social media and loads of people present themselves, some known but a lot unknown. We look at the traffic on the road and there’s loads of cars, all different colours. We look at at the options on the restaurant menu and there are loads of choices. We live in a world where we have so much but often we forget we need very little. What we need is inside us. Our hearts. They are strong. They are beautiful. We have a mind. It is strong. It is beautiful. We have a soul. It is strong. It is beautiful. We are part of a friendship to someone. And it is strong and it is beautiful. We are somebody’s one. We should never forget that and equally we should never forget how magical we are to that persons life. Keep bieveing in your own magic. keep growing your love inside you. Give it away. Hold enough to keep your light on but then give the rest away. As you give it away, you create a smile on one other person’s face and as Spike Milligan wrote, a smile is infectious. You pass your smile onto someone else and then they pass it onto someone else. One really is powerful.
Here’s the words of Spike in their full poetry motion for effect
Smiling Is Infectious
Smiling is infectious,
you catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner
and someone saw my grin.
When he smiled I realized
I'd passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile,
then I realized its worth.
A single smile, just like mine
could travel round the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin,
don't leave it undetected.
Let's start a smiling festival,
and get the world infected!
So not only were you born to love but you were born to be loved and if anything comes from this letter but you to feel the love inside you light up even just in this moment, then this letter has done its job. Listen to Ray’s song again and feel the magic inside you. If you are feeling low or lonely I promise you, you will not always feel like this. The sun will rise and set and then it will rise again and on one of these days, you will meet another person who see’s your sadness and will lift you from the darkness. Maybe you will be that person for someone else too. Don’t forget we all travel this road with things bouncing off us. Darkness does not let anyone escape. But the one thing i’ve learned is that LOVE is the answer….That and a lot of tea as many of ye know about me. A cup of tea and a cup of love in equal measure is my resolve for any problem I meet.
I miss Granny terrible as the christmas lights begin to shine. I sit in her seat alone wondering where she has gone. I miss my father too. And so many people I’ve loved who are no longer in my reach. BUT it is in this loneliness that I have taken the time to feel those feelings, to allow those tears to fall, to let that hurt be processed and then as the dark sky of the night falls, I step to the outside world and I look up.
The moon and the stars look down on me as I look up. Millions of stars sparkle and one shiny moon lights up my path.
I know that even though there is a lot of love out of my reach, a lot of love in heaven, and a lot of love gone beyond my wishes, there is way more love inside me than escapes me and that in this moment and forever more, I was born to LOVE. AND I MUST NEVER GIVE UP ON LOVE. LOVE IS THE LIGHT THAT TAKES AWAY THE DARKNESS FOR US ALL.
Keep loving. Keep believing. Keep looking up. Keep being you! There is only one magical you in this world and we love you for everything you are. What’s for you, will never pass you. Keep the faith in life, love and your own light shining out.
Christmas will come and Christmas will go. Dark times will come and dark times will go. But your LOVE, your LIGHT, will always shine bright for those who know you, love you and want the best for you. Stay close to those. They will never give up on you!
Until Monday Substack family,
Keep being YOU! If you enjoyed this letter, I’d be so grateful if you might share it with ONE person. We never know who needs to be reminded that they are seen, heard or love.
Thank you for your support always,
Love and loads of it,
YOUR NUMBER ONE BELIEVER,
Lou x
Granny Nancy’s Book is available to buy as a gift for someone you love here: www.livingandlaughingwithlou.com
Here are a few newsletters I love - Best friends who write who I love:
Beautiful as always Louise, just finished reading, (through to the end) right now. Also I listened to Ray LaMontagne, had not heard that song before and it is powerful beyond words with a truly magical melody. Just given me the push I needed for the end of today. Much love. Martina.
Thank you for the share Lou, and for your lovely words. xxx