Phoenixthebird

My mother gave me an old book of quotes, poems, and short essays called Leaves of Gold. I believe I was a teenager when I opened the pages of wisdom. There was one poem that reached into my soul. There was true beauty in the words. It made an everlasting impression upon me.

Unconditional Love:

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.

I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what part of me that you bring out.

I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart, and passing over all the foolish and frivolous and weak things which you cannot help dimly see there, and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful, radiant belongings, that no one else had looked quite far enough to find.

I love you for ignoring the possibilities of the fool and weakling in me, and for laying firm hold on the possibilities of good in me.

I love you for closing your eyes to the discords in me, and for adding to the music in me by worshipful listening.

I love you because you are helping me make of the lumber of my life, not a tavern, but a Temple, and of the words of my every day not a reproach but a song.

I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done to make me good, and more than any fate could have done to make me happy.

You have done it by being yourself. Perhaps that is what being a friend means after all.

Leaves of Gold, pg. 80

This is unconditional love!!!!!!! Is it possible for a codependent to experience "unconditional love"? ......Or is it only a pipe dream?

Phoenix