Ok, had to get this into my thread--this is just for me guys, as I have turned into "doormat extrordinaire" over here in my sitch.
Like many men and women you seem to associate love as only being flirty, nice, kind, turn the other cheek, etc. etc..
Sometimes you can NOT display strength and love. It sometimes just isn't possible to display them both at the same time...
Sometimes you have to display strength and allow them to believe that you don't love them.
Many display love and don't allow them to believe you have strength because of that.
Sometimes the correct thing is to display strenght and loving by being strong and loving YOURSELF.. It isn't always about loving them.
The strongest thing you can sometimes do is to show NO LOVE.Sometimes the loving thing looks like the hateful thing on the surface...
Those who battle this issue of how to display strength and loving are usually onlhy struggling with cake eating, door mat behavior and lettting go. They are usually struggling more with being strong than with loving. They sometimes want others to help them be enablers by telling them to "just keep on loving them, they will come around."
There should be more help on how to display strength than how to display love. We have an endless supply of people on this site trying to show how much they love their wayward. They do and try everything they can think of and even things others tell them to do to show love... That isn't the issue. The issue is strength."
