Psst, Heart. C'mere.

We need to talk.

You know that I love you, Heart. I mean, really - who knows that better than you? So take what I'm about to say in a loving spirit.

You need to buck up. You need to hike up your big girl panties and repeat after me: I AM LOVED. I AM WELL AND FULLY LOVED. I AM WELL AND FULLY LOVED AND EVEN THOUGH THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME IMMUNE FROM HURT IT DOES MAKE ME STRONG.

You are strong, Heart. You might not be bulletproof - it would be kind of weird if you were - but you are strong. Really strong. You're strong because you've endured hurt. But you're also strong because you love and are loved. You love and are loved by a partner in life who you know, KNOW, will be your partner forever. You love and are loved by two remarkable children. You love and are loved by a large, wonderful extended family and an amazing circle of friends. You are surrounded by love - by the love that you project and by the love that is directed to you - and that wall of love protects you and keeps you and so what are you so afraid of?

Sure, parts of that wall could crumble. Trojan horses could slip through its gates; arrows could be launched over its heights and a battering ram could batter its way through. But the wall - the forcefield, if we're going to get super dorky about this -would still stand. You would still be surrounded by love. You might get hurt, but you'd be okay. You might get badly hurt, but
you'd be okay. Really. You would. So you need to get over this fear
thing. You need to stop racing away and hiding under barrels every time you hear mortar fire or see crumbling brick.

Because every time you do that, Heart? All that love that surrounds and protects you like a wall, like a force-field, like a whole army of cherubim armed with the latest angel defense technologies? Its power is diminished. Every time you take yourself and your love and hide away, you weaken your own defenses. Because the best defense against fear is love, love and more love. And if you're cowering in a corner, fearful, anxious (what if something happens to the children? what if the husband is really getting frustrated? what if bad things happen to us? what if bad things happen to anyone we love? WHAT IF? WHAT IF?) you're not really fully putting everything into loving. And if you're not putting everything into loving, you're not strong. So there.

I shouldn't have to tell you this, Heart. You should know that, because love is your business. Love is what you do.

So, please, just f*#@ the fear and do it?

Kthx.

(You know I love you, right? MWAH.)

Catherine blogs at Her Bad Mother, where she likes to abuse figurative language.