Universal, unconditional love.
Have you ever met anyone who would love you no matter what? Even without knowing who you are or what you've done?
I've met some people like that. People who are good, and recognize the good in everyone. People who make me feel good about myself just from the way they greet me. People whose eyes light up when they recognize my face, despite never having been very close to me.
These people always have something they can say to brighten a mood. I want to create a collection of such phrases and words. I want to be that kind of person.
If you are a person like that, what do you say to make someone feel worthy of love?
"I love you." ^probably the easiest way is letting them know.
I have a friend whom I always enjoy being around because she is so positive and makes people feel loved. It's not so much that she uses certain phrases, it's that she will quickly, readily, and often point out the things she likes about someone, whether they are there in the room, whether it's to their face, or whether they're not around but she's talking about them. She is very honest about what she likes about people. She will say to me, "You are totally rocking that outfit." She will, upon introducing a friend, say "This girl built her own house. How cool is that?" She will, of an absent friend who comes up in conversation, say "He is such a gentle person, really salt of the earth genuine, I love him." I often feel like a lot of the things we say about other people ends up only being negative, and that pointing out positive things or being overly complimentary can seem like flattery or fakeness, so we don't do it. Having known this person, I have since tried to tell people the positive things I like about them, when I am with them, when they are doing it, and it makes interactions on both sides very enjoyable.
Easy answer. I tell my nieces and nephews I absolutely love them every single time I see them. I hug them and kiss them and they absolutely get the message. I am supportive of anything they do. Positively reinforcing anything they do. More than that though I act like I do. I take them to hockey games. I take them to the park. I bathe them and play frisbee. I love those kids. Actions and words are both important.
from the poem "Colours" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko (translated from Russian) When your face
appeared over my crumpled life
at first I understood
only the poverty of what I have.
Then its particular light
on woods, on rivers, on the sea,
became my beginning in the coloured world
in which I had not yet had my beginning.