Of all the expressions of love found in thought and pen, it was my three-year-old Jennifer who one day burst forth with the best I love you that I’ve ever heard. I was standing on a sidewalk in Brooklyn, New York, waiting to pick her up from her mom’s house when I look up, and there’s my daughter running up to me, her face lit with a smile, arms spread wide for the big hug she knows is waiting. “Daddy! I love you my whole wide world!”

That was 40 years ago. I love you my whole wide world. To this day, I’ve never heard or read anything that tops my daughter’s words for telling someone all of who you are loves them.

Life is too short to pass on a chance to tell someone you love you love them. People both need and deserve to hear it. Too often, it seems, there is more comfort and ease when it comes to expressing anger, disappointment, frustration, and dislike than the comfort and ease felt by some when it comes to expressing love and kindness. There may have been a time when it wasn’t safe to do so.

If you love someone, I hope you’ll tell them. I love you my whole wide world is a helluva way of getting your point across. I love my daughter, Jennifer, my whole wide world. And I love telling her I love her, my whole wide world.