Anything But Nothing

"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." That's great advice, right? But think of what a different and infinitely more marvelous world it would be if we would equally emphasize the teaching that if you can say something nice, you should say it. All of it. Regardless of the potential for awkwardness. Regardless of the possibility of coming on too strong. Regardless of whether or not the recipient of your affections echoes and returns your sentiments. 

It's a sad time when giving, passionate people start to feel that their love for someone is only worth cultivating and expressing if they already have at least a 90% assurance that it is equally reciprocated. 

It's a sad time when past rejections cause brave people to fear being bold and honest with someone who means the world to them. 

It's a sad time when people are more comfortable using the anonymity of the internet to waste their energy, their power of words, in fawning over a watered-down, 1-dimensional view of someone they don't even know than they are in sharing their admiration and respect for those they are intimately connected with daily.

It's a sad time when generous, beautiful, flawed-but-faithful people start to doubt themselves and their goodness (not just their inherent gifts and fortunes, but especially the goodness they have learned and earned) simply because they don't receive the validation from those they are closest to. 

None of this is intended to imply that there is no place for anonymous acts of kindness, that our goodness is only worthwhile when adequately praised by others, or that self-esteem is forged from anything other than one's own inner strength. But when hard times come and that confidence wanes, and the most beautiful, complex, incredible people start fearing they may have been way off base in appreciating themselves, the kind words a sincere friend has to offer may just be what reminds them how irrevocably worthwhile they are.

Express your love, no matter how small. Shout it from the rooftops, write it in a note, share it in an embrace, or anything else. 

Anything but nothing.