Love In her Eyes

By Erin Deborah Waks

I sat next to a mother and her baby on the tube today.

The woman - a large, conventionally unattractive, badly dressed, awkward lady - was looking at her baby and kissing her on the nose. And every time she pulled away to look at her child, the little girl would screw up her face and giggle loudly, looking back at her mother with an expression of undeniable love.

It was so touching I actually teared up, grateful for the sunglasses I had in my handbag.

It got me thinking about all the things we seem to think make us hard to love.

I’ve got friends who think they’re not smart enough, not pretty enough, not independent enough or too independent. Bad in bed. Not sexually alluring. Too impatient. Too fat, or too thin. Too tall, or too short.

But all of us have something lovable within. Lots of things.

I love that I’m sometimes so overwhelmed by something I have to write it down immediately. That I can entertain myself for hours with just a pen and paper. That I never run out of inspiration because I’m always, always feeling things. That I care so much about the people in my life. That I’m sometimes upset by little things, but that also means I can be so, so happy about little things too.

It’s paramount - no, urgent - we recognise the love we deserve. That pure, unbridled love a mother has while holding her baby tight. All anyone wants is to be looked at like that.