Time for a timeout...

Okay, children, it's time to stop reacting. Time to stop holding grudges. Time to stop peeing in the sandbox. Time to stop worrying about who looks strong and who looks weak. Time to stop thinking we're better than everyone else. Time to stop having hissy fits and feeling like we're going to vomit whenever someone takes offense at us telling them that we're better than them.

It's time to put on our big boy/girl pants and think before we speak. Time to talk to each other. Time to realize that when Putin's is the calmest, most reasonable voice in the room, perhaps we need to stop and consider that. Time to not dismiss everything else he said just because he (like everyone else on the planet) does not like being told that we're better.

If you need to sit on the step by yourself for a minute to calm down, do feel free to do that. Come back when you're feeling a little more reasonable and can actually add something constructive to the conversation.

Love, love, love...

I'm neither a poet nor a songwriter. I don't claim to know all that much about love. But I do know a couple of things.

Being loved should not be something you need to defend against. If being told that you are loved causes you to firmly slam your walls of defense into place, you really need to think about that.

It shouldn't hurt to be loved. Loving someone else can hurt. But being loved? That shouldn't hurt. If someone loving you hurts you, then, again, you really need to think about that.

Love isn't a threat or a sentence. If it feels that way, then you need to give it a good hard look.

Nothing is required of you when someone loves you. Just keep being you. Clearly that really is enough.

Love shouldn't come with conditions or expectations. If it does, it probably isn't love.

When someone opens their heart to you and lets you in, recognize the honor of that. You do not have to love the person back. You don't even have to understand why the person loves you. Just accept it for what it is.

Being loved is a gift.