She looked at me and said without smiling, “Not appropriate.”

I gave an easy smile, “It’s just a compliment.”

She remained standing there, looking at me. We stood there mirroring each other.

Why didn’t she walk away? There was plenty of room in the rest of the bar. I wondered what she was thinking. Did she trust me? Did she know that I was being genuine? Did she know if she returned my love, that I would not abuse her?

There’s an important part of life, maybe the fundamental part of it which I regularly remind myself:

You gotta show up.

Whatever you believe, you must apply it, live it. Someone says something that resonates with me?

“I like that,” the words come out of my mouth before I know what happened.

I see an exquisite female, carrying herself with spirit and confidence. “You’re fantastic,” I say it almost unconsciously, caught up in something beyond me, and it manifests itself into the world.

Expressing yourself is important, and also applies when someone has made you feel badly, in personal life, or at work, when you’ve been discounted without proper regard.

The uncomfortable conversations must be had, just as the ones that show your love. How else do you improve? How else do you allow others to improve when they don’t know they’ve done wrong?

A life without these communications is a life of fear, anxiety, and anger. At the worst. At the best?

It’s a life without getting better.

It’s a life without love.