Do you realize that your refusal to utter the word ‘love’ 

to your lover has created a force field all of it’s own?

Withholding distorts reality. It makes the one withholding ugly and small-hearted. 

It makes the people from whom things are being withheld crazy and desperate 

and incapable of knowing what they actually feel.

So release yourself from that. Don’t be strategic or coy. 

Strategic and coy are for jackasses. Be brave. Be authentic. 

Practice saying the word ‘love’ to the people you love 

so when it matters the most to say it, you will.

Cheryl Strayed