"The Greatest Love of All” is considered one of Whitney Houston’s most popular songs. I’ve heard it possibly hundreds of times, but it wasn’t until I was an adult that I understood what it really meant. By my 30s I was finally starting to realize what Ralph Waldo Emerson meant when he said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” I spent so much of my 20s thinking happiness was somewhere else – hidden somewhere with the perfect job and a handsome boyfriend. A lot of searching, trying and failing finally clued me in to the fact that the thing I wanted most was something only I could give myself… and that’s what “The Greatest Love of All” is about. The chorus says, “The greatest love of all is easy to achieve / Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all.” I remember hearing the song when Houston tragically died. It was bittersweet, because it made me wonder if she remembered the words to her own song… especially the last verse: “And if, by chance, that special place that you've been dreaming of / Leads you to a lonely place, find your strength in love.” It’s a reminder to us all to never lose sight that the world will never make us happy. That job is up to us.

-J. Jones