Thank You for Loving Me

The best response to "I love you."

I recently discovered that my old blog, from 2003 through 2006, is archived on The Wayback Machine¹. While archiving these old posts on my computer, I have come across some beautiful reminders of days past. I want to share a post from March 24, 2004, 20 years ago this week.

“Thank you!”

2004.03.24

These days, whenever my wife and I say, “I love you” to our son, his response is “Thank you.”

Something I sketched on the iPad after reading this old post.

I think that is the cutest, if not the nicest, response in this situation. After all, we shouldn’t feel the need to respond in kind whenever somebody says, “I love you.” It seems so much nicer to simply say, “Thank you.”

Next time somebody tells you they love you, try it out and see how it feels…

Tipping The Scales

Small things like the decades-old post shared above have tipped my internal scales from the Gorilla side to the Santa side.²

Looking back, I see the seeds of my inner struggles alongside the beautiful and joyous family moments. Some of those seeds just may bear fruit in the form of future articles.

The Takeaway

• Break out of your ‘knee-jerk’ responses to social niceties and other common greetings. Instead of relying on the same old expected response, take a moment to be genuine. I’d love to hear how it goes.

1. If you are unfamiliar with the magic of The Wayback Machine, click here to see what Google’s landing page looked like in 1998.

2. My personal struggle is between my internal Gorilla, which is the side of me burdened with Anxiety, Depression, procrastination, and sloth. On the other end of the scale is my Santa side, which is on the positive side of the scale towards my “Best Me.”