Once

I don't know that you can love others until you can love yourself.  But sometimes, it is the love of another that helps you to love yourself.  In the musical, "Once," an Irish songwriter and musician has given up on himself.  He will abandon his guitar and songwriting because no one seems interested.  His girlfriend has gone to America.  He will just spend his life fixing vacuum cleaners in Dublin.  No self-love here.  Along comes a girl who has her own problems with abandonment.  She loves his music, sees his potential and encourages him.  She loves him and he begins to believe in himself and then to love himself.  He will learn to love another person.  Since I have experienced the love from another person when I did not love myself, I try to "pass it on."  When people are maudlin, filled with self-loathing, lack of confidence, seemingly empty of heart, maybe even feeling sorry of themselves, I try not to give up.  I don't help them to continue that behavior, but I do try to show them that there is something precious within them.  Even if they do not get better, I do.