Where did you learn love from, what or who were your examples?

My mother. Kindest person I know – she really taught me to love the world without any “isms”. Most importantly and till this day, she loved me with every piece of her heart.

I think when I was growing up, I learned to love from my parents, teachers, and media (mostly TV and movies like Disney movies). As I grew up, I started to learn how to love from experiences, especially experiences that taught me how I had been “taught” to “love” from my parents wasn’t necessarily the way that I should love everyone. My parents are overbearing and I had to learn the hard way that I couldn’t love like that.

I learned what love is not and shouldn’t be from my parents and decided when I have children I would never treat them that way. Not once in my life did my parents say they loved me nor did they ever hold me. I did all the sports through school and not one time did any member of my family ever show up. So I learned how much that hurt and did the opposite for my children.

My first lessons in love were from my family, mostly my mother. We were taught unconditional love for family, and it is still evident in the lives of myself and all my sibilings (and their kids, and their kids).

Another example set for us was by my aunt. She would be in her 90’s by now. When she was a young woman, she passed up the opportunity to marry (which was very unusual in the 1920’s) because she was supporting and raising her four younger siblings.

Another person I learned love from was a friend of the family. This mother of 6 came to our house while our mom was recovering from a heart attack. Without asking anything in return, she would cook, clean, and direct chores for the five of us kids who were at home, as well as tend to my mother, who was bedridden for about two weeks. I haven’t seen or heard about her for about 30 years, and I think about her every once in a while.

My parents and family.

My mom taught me about the love in the parent/child relationship.

My grandmother and grandfather were who I looked up to when it came to the loving long term relationship and the love they shared.

My friends have taught me a lot about the love we can have for each other in our friendships.

It is a light that is reflected and comes down to us from our earliest years.

My grandparents and comic books. Seriously. My grandparents gave me stories of our families, tried to teach me lesson about healthy love and hopeless love as well as guiding me as to what kinds of affection are appropriate between different people. Comic books gave me challenging scenarios and lifestories to consider, love not being easy or cut and dry.

My mother