Last year, I had this moment in which I felt compelled to make a midyear, midmonth, midday resolution to excessively and deliberately tell my loved ones that they were, in fact, loved.

I’m certain it was inspired by my obsession with Judah Smith; I admired how casually and liberally he’d throw around his I love you’s … without pause or restraint or even regard for who was on the receiving end. And the sincerity was palpable.

Well so last Tuesday I was ending a text conversation with one of my sweet friends and received a final “I love you too.”

My heart swelled and I realized I hadn’t receive a lot of I love you texts from this specific human. It wasn’t that they didn’t love me; it was quite obvious through gestures, body language, the way in which they’d lean-in when I came around; but the words were precious and saved.

I wondered if maybe I needed to back off and respect boundaries a bit more.

And then I remembered my random resolution to be more like Judah. And ya know what, when asking myself WWJudahD, he’d certainly put his ego aside and continue lovin’ on everyone, regardless of whether or not they said it back.

Because the best part about I love you is that it’s not contingent upon anything. You don’t have to be a certain way for me to love you; nor will bad behavior deter me from loving you; I don’t even really have to know you to love you; just stoked to go through this human being life thing witchu.

The other thing that’s happened is it’s started defining my relationships. We learned back in some simple introductory college comm class that your words define your reality; and certainly the amount of love in my life was growing. Perhaps in direct relation to the amount of people I said I love you to.

And so here I am, continuing on, disrespectfully but sincerely throwing around I love you’s like handfuls of confetti.

Wonder how many people I can love on this year.  Hurrr we gooo.