How Love Begins in You

It is often said

that in order to love another person,

one must first love oneself.

One reason given

is that we could never give

what it is

we do not even have.

The second reason I’ve heard,

and which made much sense to me,

is that the happiness of those we love

depends so much on our own happiness.

If our loved ones see that we are suffering,

that we are not happy,

how can we ever expect them to be happy as well?

The third reason,

I’ve just realized now.

I’ve realized that there can be no ‘beloved’

if there is none who loves that beloved first.

It is ‘you’ who loves,

and if there is no ‘you’

how then can you love

whomsoever you profess you love?

Love begins in you,

it is not so much that you cannot give

what you do not have,

but if there be no giver,

no love could ever be given at all.