This is my love letter and my loss letter. It may not be my lightest letter. But today it is my living eulogy for all broken hearts; a battle cry for self-love, and my letter of absolute certainty that the Beatles had it right.

“All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.”

And love is all we are. If only we knew it. Regardless of our archetypal patterns, we are all born as Lovers. Lover is the universal archetype. And now more than ever I am convinced that Archetypes is the new language that will carry us to a world where understanding our magnificence — our purpose for being here and loving ourselves and each other — will be as simple as learning our ABCs.

It is so easy to take for granted. We think we know every letter in our life’s alphabet, until an event comes out of left field that leaves us with a bleeding heart.

I knew and will forever love a beautiful young woman. She was a Lover who loved everyone but herself. People young and old are always showing or telling us (and we are reflecting back) how much or little we love ourselves. Whether we know it or not. How much more cutting into the flesh of our children do we need to see before we acknowledge a global statement is being made: “The pain is so bad that hurting myself feels better.”

How many more lives need to crack before we collectively realize that without loving ourselves we have little to give and everything to lose? Perhaps the purpose of being brought to our knees is to open our broken hearts to healing. In our heart’s own way and at its own pace.

The great Carl Jung, who developed the concepts of collective unconscious and archetypes, once said, “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” But he said this over sixty years ago at a time when people could not have conceived of such a thing as our current technology and the internet.

It is this remarkable time in which we live that inspired us to create Archetypes.com to connect the dots of our gifts and cross the wonderful bridges of our empowered lives with people all over the world.

My plea and prayer is for us all to remember to love ourselves. We are each Lovers. This is life’s great invitation for as long as we all shall live.

With grace and gratitude,
Cristina

Cristina Carlino is the founder of Archetypes, Inc. Each week she will reveal a new letter of the Alphabet of Archetypes. Stop back often to discover aspects of yourself you didn’t know existed.