No discussion of poetry would be even remotely complete without mention of love poems. Most likely, all of us have at least one favorite. Whether or not we can recite it, there’s usually something that we have heard that has touched our hearts.

Here’s my favorite – and it’s best read aloud. I invite you to think about your favorite and to share it with someone you love today. Poetry can connect our hearts.

i carry your heart with me i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate (for you are my fate,my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

~ e. e. cummings

Please write me and tell me your favorite love poems. You can also post (so everyone can share) on the Study Hall blog beta site at:

http://www.coachingforresults.com/studyhall

Our annual celebration of love has its roots in the martyred St. Valentine who is rumored to have sent the first “official” note on February 14th, 269 A.D., the day he was executed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius. It was signed, “From Your Valentine.”

In concluding our week about LOVING YOURSELF, what would your Valentine to yourself say? Start with something like, “I love me because . . . . . . . ” and then list 5 or 10 things that, without equivocation, you love about yourself.

Consider making a note in a journal, diary or calendar where you can be reminded of these things when, in the future, you might forget them.

Consider letting others in your life know what you love about yourself and what how you express it. You can do this in personal relationships, but you can also do it in business. For example, “I pride myself on my attention to my clients” or “I love the way that our products help people.

Tomorrow, consider granting yourself – and others – a reprieve and pardon any outstanding offenses in the name of love.

Most of all, consider how loving yourself thoroughly and well gives you the strongest possible foundation from which to engage the world . . . another strategic advantage in the Land of Results.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Valentine!

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

My friend, Carl Bressler, likes to say, “Discipline is self love” . . . a statement that speaks volumes about our topic of LOVING YOURSELF for this week of Valentine’s Day.

The word “discipline” has the same root as “disciple,” which infers that discipline can be understood as “being true to and committed to core values like health, integrity, excellence, etc.”

Thus, Carl’s statement could read, “Commitment to core values like health, integrity, excellence, etc., is self-love” . . . and that makes a lot of sense. It’s illuminating to understand discipline somewhat differently than its normal definition which often implies difficulty.

Trying on this different definition of LOVING YOURSELF, what kind of discipline, for you, would represent self-love? How successful are you in adhering to your core values? Which core values would you like to focus on for Valentine’s Day as a means of loving yourself?

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.