“Love doesn’t use a fist. Love never calls you fat or lazy or ugly. Love doesn’t laugh at you in front of your friends. It is not in Love’s interest for your self-esteem to be low. Love is a helium-based emotion; Love always takes the high road. Love does not make you beg. Love does not make you deposit your paycheck into its bank account. Love certainly never, never, never brings the children into it. Love does not ask or even want you to change. But if you change, Love is as excited about this change as you are, if not more so. And if you go back to the way you were before you changed, Love will go back with you. Love does not maintain a list of your flaws and weaknesses. Love believes you. Love is patient; Love does not make a point of showing you how patient it is. …Patience is exhibited only by a lack of pressure. This is how you know it’s there.”
— Augusten Burroughs, This is How
