Forgotten?

We want to be respected for who we are.

Not for what we can do.

Not for what we bring to the table.

But for who were are, stripped down, simple, without degrees, labels, or achievements.

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We want to be known.

Fully.

Not as who we pretend to be, but who we are when we look in the mirror.

The quirks of our personalities. Our faults. Our attributes.

The way we process information, the way we handle conflict.

Why we do what we do.

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We want that person, the "real us", to be loved.

For someone to see us for who we are, for what we are not, and consider us something worthy of love. Of admiration. Someone to see us worthy of pursuit, or investment.

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We know we want this for ourselves.

But very often, more often than not, we forget others feel this way as well.

Such needs are reciprocated, mirrored in the face of a stranger, echoed in the voice of a neighbor, written on the arms of a lover.

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But

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We are selfish.

Every last one of us.

And we are forgetful.

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We forget to love others as we would want to be loved.

We forget to see.

We forget to recognize worth.

We forget to value.

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This is why we continue to hurt.

To be lonely.

Not just in the context of romantic relationships.

But in regards to community in general.

We do not love with the kind of love we long for.

Which is all it would really take...

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We worry about what strangers think of us.

Neglect the person who lives across the hall.

Our love, our attention, is farsighted.

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We long to be known.

Yet settle for casual, unintentional relationships.

Our arms reach for a warm embrace.

Passing up the waiting arms already extended to us.

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How is it we have forgotten the desire of our heart?

To love and be loved.

To know and be known.

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