HATE

Hate is such a strong word. Such a terrible word. It's a scary feeling. An all-consuming emotion.

It starts with a tiny flame brought to life by a bad idea, and it festers, it burns, it snuffs all of the oxygen from your spirit. It causes you to tremble with rage with a flicker of thought, or sight. For some, it inflicts an uncontrollable need to sob the pain away. It hurts. For some, it causes illness. For many, it's an overbearing desire to scream, yell, punch, hit, kick, pull, and push. This flame, this fire, that has taken over your mind and body, goes by the name of hate.

Yet so many people carry hate in their lives.

Whether it's the fact that you hate a musical artist, a vegetable, a "type" of individual, or even yourself, it's a horrible thing to hold in your heart.

What Exactly Is Hate:
 According to Dictionary.com, the first definition for hate is, "to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest"

Synonyms listed are: Loathe, Execrate, Despise, Abhor, Detest; Abominate.

Do we really want to feel this way?

Is this feeling necessary?

On A Personal Note:
I know I say that I hate a certain number of things, but it fills me with guilt as soon as the word exits my mouth. I try my hardest not to use that word, but sometimes it's difficult, because it gets thrown around so often. Like the word "Love," it's difficult to define it, to know when it's true, or if it's just a heat-of-the-moment situation. For the most part, I'll use words such as despise, or I may really not like something, but do I really hate anything? Do I really hate anyone? I don't know if I could.

I mean, the slightest whiff of pickles will make me want to spew the past three days of food all over the place, but I don't hate pickles. I've never even eaten one I don't think. I just can't stand the smell!

I'm terrified of spiders and creepy-crawly bugs. I don't hate them, on the contrary, I find them fascinating! Every once in a while, I'll look one up on the computer and when I can't take it anymore, because I've just subjected myself to terror, I'll stop. When I see one in real life, I become paralyzed temporarily and my heart will race. But I don't hate them. I've just had a Lot of bad experiences with them. (Maybe another post.)

There's just too much love and appreciation for this world in my heart that I have no room for hate. It doesn't really exist. It's just a word that I accidentally toss around on occasion.

What About You:
Tell me, why do hate whatever/whomever it is that you do so much? What's the reason? Is it sufficient? Is it reasonable? Is it necessary to spend you time hating it when you could utilize that energy to love someone/something more?

In my opinion, it takes more effort to hate a brand of chips, than it does to love three human beings. So why not make room in your heart for that? I bet you'd feel a lot happier with life, work, friends, and whatever have you if that were the case.

Take some time to think about it.

Is hate what you're really about?
Is that what you want to be known for?
Is that how you want others to see you?

Thank you for reading,
<3 Tawny