Tell Someone you Love them today :)

Today has been a reminder of how life can be short and really suck sometimes.
I didn't really have a sucky day, just a lot of opportunities to observe life sucking.

For example my day started with me staying home from work - when my Teta (grandmother) work-up and found me in my room, she got very excited about having someone home with her. She actually did a little dance in front of my bedroom door (ask her and she'll deny it, but she did).
It was really cute, but mostly it got me thinking about how lonely and boring and long her days must feel home alone, all day, every day with nothing to do. Plus when the rest of the family gets home we all have other things to do, errands, dinner to make. My mom and my aunt both take a nap right after work - for at least 1 hour. I imagined what it would feel like to be starved for company all day, then people finally get here, just to choose sleep or something else over talking to me. Kinda Sucks.

Example # 2 - I was in an interview where I was given senarios that I was asked to put together some case conceptualization and treatment plans for as well as highlight challenges, and concerns. This is pretty standard in my field. The senarios were pretty convoluted, but I know that they are true to life situations. It made me sad to think of people who had suffered so much at the misguided hands of others (parents, teachers, etc) and are now struggling to be a functional part of society. Definitely Sucks.

Example # 3 - Driving home on WDCX (the Christian station out of Buffalo) they had a counselling call in show. BTW, the Therapist was excellent. I heard 2 people in the hour I was in the car (stupid highway lane reductions and exit closures). The first lady had been married for 6 years and her husband had not displayed any physical affection towards her through their entire marriage. The therapist coached caller on asking questions about his childhood. Even though she didn't say this to the caller, it was pretty clear her working hypothesis was that he is an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse. The second guy was from a military family and was talking about how he was very rigid and structured (expects everyone in the house awake and beds made by 4am and stuff like that). Again she talked about his childhood (he came from a military family, no surprise there). The interesting part was when she asked him how it made him feel as a child - and he said "I hated it", and yet he was pulling those same things into his adulthood and for his children. Sucks for sure!

Anyway, bottom line is it also made me thing about how many great and awesome things we can have in life, despite the suckage - which manage to co-exists together. Plus we usually totally ignore the good stuff, 'cause our entire focus is spent on the suckage, the pain, the hurt, the anger. Still Sucks!

And then I started thinking about how much of a difference a small gesture would have made in each of my suck examples above.
What if I had gotten out of bed and had breakfast with my Teta?
What if the call-in lady's husband spontaneously held her hand, or kissed her forehead?
What if her husband had an adult he could trust when he was a child, who gave him a feeling of unconditional security and love?
What if call-in guy's Dad had hugged him, or played wrestling with him or let him sleep in on a Saturday?

Suddenly the Suck is shrinking.

So I would like to encourage you (yes you) to tell somebody whom you love that you love them today, give them a hug, smile.
Life is incomplete without these things.