Coercion

She feels unloved, she tells me.

It’s an old problem.  She’s felt unloved since she was a child.

Her solution is to demand love from her husband.

Daily, sometimes hourly, she demands he give her more attention, acceptance, approval and affection.

It’s not working, though.  And she doesn’t understand why.

What she doesn’t understand is that love is a gift, or it isn’t love.

That it can be received, but not demanded.

Given, but not coerced.

That when love is coerced, it becomes something else.

It becomes a lie.